


The Deception of Dai-nana-han

by Nightwing15



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Field Medic Haruno Sakura, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Kakashi is just so done, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Nice Uchiha Sasuke, Ninjutsu Master Uchiha Sasuke, Protective Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Strong Haruno Sakura, THIS IS NOT A NARUHINA STORY!, Team as Family, father Kakashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2019-12-31 22:16:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 40,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18323039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightwing15/pseuds/Nightwing15
Summary: Naruto: the strategist, the seal master, the younger brother.Sakura: the brawn, the field medic, the big sister.Sasuke: the level-headed, the ninjutsu specialist, the big brother.And Kakashi? Well, he's the damn proud father of them all.(With Kurama thrown in there somewhere as the eccentric uncle).Together: the most unpredictable team to ever walk the earth.(Cross-posted on Wattpad)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Naruto franchise does not, will not, and will never belong to me. Unfortunately. It belongs to the great Kishimoto Masashi-sama. 
> 
> Warnings: There isn't really anything you guys need to worry about, but maybe mentions of violence?
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

Naruto doesn't like that people hate him. In fact, all he wants from life--from other  _people_ \--is to at least be  _acknowledged_  as a person. As sad as that is. 

The only...being?...that ever pays him any attention is a certified  _demon_. Kurama, he calls himself, a fox demon classified as a Kyuubi. Of course, Naruto realized, even as a five year old child, that talking to a demon that lives inside his  _stomach_ , (or at least, he  _thinks_  Kurama lives in his stomach) is not normal. And he figured that the grumpy fox was probably the reason why all of Konoha hates him. 

But he doesn't hold it against Kurama, because Kurama is always there. 

Always there, comforting Naruto in times of darkness. 

Always there, healing him from wounds inflicted by the villagers.

Always there, teaching Naruto how to be  a ninja. 

That said, the only times that Kurama can't be there for Naruto, are during a game that civilians and ninja alike call: Demon Blood.

Unfortunately, Naruto's first lesson into becoming the best ninja Konoha would have to offer, was learning how to hide his presence from blood-thirsty people-- _from his own village_ \--that wanted to kill him.

Also unfortunately, it was Naruto's sixth birthday today, and multiple groups of villagers and ninja had begun a round of Demon Blood. And once again, Naruto was running for his life. 

[You have got to be kidding me! Every time, without fail, they manage to organize a few rounds of this stupid game! Don't they ever get tired of it?!] Naruto whined to Kurama, dodging a flying frying pan. 

[Sorry kit. Not gonna lie though, this probably won't be the last time that they do this. Fortunately, this gives you plenty of practice in hiding your immense chakra signature!] Kurama optimistically said back. 

[Are you being serious right now? I'm running who-knows-how-fast across the rooftops of people who want to kill me, maim me, burn me, or rip me into shreds, and all you can think of is how great of an opportunity this is for training?!] the blond griped while leaping over a large gap in between buildings. 

[Yup!]

[I hate you, you overgrown, lazy, irritating excuse for a cat.]

[Aw, don't be like that! You know you love me! I'm just so cuddly!]

[I. Am going to create the pink-ist, glittery-ist, sparkly-ist, most eye-grating cage for you to sit in to think about your life choices for the next ten years. Don't think I won't.]

[You wouldn't dare.]

But Naruto didn't have time to respond, because he had just been nicked in the leg by a flying kunai. 

_'Dammit. That's gonna slow me down for a while. Gotta find somewhere to hide.'_

Thinking quickly, he used a weak version of the Body Flicker technique to change directions without alerting his pursuers as to which way he had turned. 

_'The river at Training Ground 3 should be a good place to hide. If anything, I can just hold my breath for a while if they come looking for me there, though I doubt they think I'm smart enough to hide somewhere like a training place for shinobi. Hopefully I won't run into anyone there.'_

Carefully casting out his senses, Naruto  ran as fast and as silently as he could towards his chosen destination. Not feeling any other chakra signatures other than his own, he dashed towards the dense trees that lined the bank of the river, and settled down to wait.

[Hey, do you think you could keep an eye out for me? I'm gonna take a nap, I'm exhausted] Naruto asked Kurama while closing his eyes.

[Sure thing, kit.]

Naruto sighed contentedly, before falling immediately into a light slumber.

Until his eyes flew open a few seconds later when a chakra signature full of rage and hurt and fury and sorrow and  _pain_  filled his senses. It knocked the breath out of Naruto's lungs, as if he'd been punched in the gut. 

Quickly sitting up, he wildly swung his head around, searching for the owner of the raging chakra with wide, blue eyes and a frantically beating heart.

[Kurama, do you-?]

[Yeah. Find it, but be careful kit. We don't know if they're here for you, or for themselves.]

Nodding silently, Naruto cautiously rose to his feet in a slight crouch, keeping himself hidden in the shadow of the trees. Thankfully, it was late evening, with long shadows creeping across the ground, created by the half hidden sun on the horizon, so the blond boy could conceal himself from view. His sensitive ears then caught the sound of choked-off crying. 

_'What...?'_

"WHY?! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY?! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE KILLED ME TOO?! WHY DID YOU KILL THEM ALL WHILE LEAVING ME HERE ALONE?! WHY, ITACHI?!"

Naruto reeled back from the sudden roar of words, his eyes finally finding the owner of the angry chakra standing near the edge of the river. It was a boy that Naruto had seen many times around the village, but had never spoken to. He hadn't found himself interested in other kids his age, because he believed that they would never accept him for who he was. Of course, Kurama had tried to knock some sense into Naruto's head, (figuratively and literally), saying that he would never know if he didn't try, but Naruto could be more stubborn than his mother sometimes, which Kurama had attested to. 

But now, Naruto could  _feel_  the pain and the anger and the sadness that plagued this boy's heart. 

And it called out to him like a beacon, as if saying  _I'm here, I'm hurting, I need someone to help me._

It was a call that Naruto was not going to ignore, not even with the risk of being shunned or pushed away, because Naruto knew what it was like to  _be_  that beacon. 

So, abandoning all logic to the metaphorical wind, he stepped out from his refuge of trees and silently walked over to stand at the dark-haired boy's side. 

"Hello. Do you want some company?" Naruto asked softly, staring out at the river. 

The other boy, obviously not having noticed Naruto approach, startled and threw a punch at Naruto's head out of reflex.

Fortunately, Naruto had been training with Kurama in hand-to-hand combat for three years now, and had honed his instincts and reflexes so finely that he could now dodge a  _kunai_  even if it had been thrown at him from four feet away. 

Not wanting to fight with the angry boy, Naruto calmly ducked out of the way, and turned to face his...companion? (Naruto wasn't sure what to refer to the other boy as, even within the privacy of his own mind).

"Hey! Hey, it's okay. I don't want a fight, I just-," Naruto sighed in frustration, roughly dragging a hand through his dirty hair. (He hadn't been able to wash himself for a few days, and was starting to wonder if he could use Training Ground 3's river).

"I was wondering if you wanted any company. You looked, well,  _felt_ , extremely lonely, and angry," Naruto finished a bit awkwardly. 

Tears were still periodically falling from the other boy's eyes, and Naruto watched as he angrily wiped them away with his arm. 

"Why do  _you_  care? You're probably another one of those council idiots who wants to recruit me. I've already told you! I don't want anything to do with the council!"

Naruto was stunned. "What do you mean? I don't even know who you are! Why would I want to take you to the council? As far as I know, the council wants me  _dead_. I ain't going anywhere  _near_  them, even if they said they could give me a lifetime's worth of ramen!" he replied, slightly offended. 

"Wait, what? You don't know who I am? And why would the council want you dead?" 

"Hell if I know." That was a lie. "And why should I know who you are? You look like you're the same age as me, so there's no way you're some famous ninja or something. Are you from one of the clans that live in Konoha?"

Dark, obsidian eyes searched cerulean blue for any traces of a lie, but found none. The defensive posture that the other boy had adopted dropped, and Naruto felt himself slightly relax.

"So, I take it that you believe me?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

He was given a side-long glance, until the other boy snorted, and held out his hand. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. The last surviving member of the Uchiha Clan in Konoha." The last bit was said in a bitter tone, but Naruto decided to ignore it for now.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Sasuke! I'm...Naruto. Just Naruto," he replied, shaking the Uchiha's offered hand.

Of course, Naruto knew ex _actly_  who his parents were, he just didn't feel comfortable sharing that knowledge with someone he just met, even if the boy--Sasuke--was turning out to be nicer than he thought. 

Sasuke gave him a slightly suspicious look, but he, too, found himself ignoring any irregularities of his new companion. 

"So...forgive me for asking, but what are you doing out here so late in the evening? Shouldn't you be at home?" Naruto asked, withdrawing his hand.

"I could be asking you the same thing."

"Well, I asked you first."

"Are you a child?"

"Technically, we're  _both_  children. So yeah, I am a child."

"Dobe."

"Idiot."

"Dunce."

"Incompetent airhead."

"Creepy stalker."

"Duck-butt hair!"

Naruto and Sasuke stared each other down.

"Pfft," Naruto let out. Then he giggled, and then he found he couldn't contain his laughter, collapsing to the ground and rolling around clutching his stomach.

Sasuke couldn't help but laugh along with the blond, though not to the same extent as the cheerful sunshine-child.

Eventually, they calmed down enough to sit next to each other on the bank of the river. 

A comfortable silence fell upon the training ground, and the two boys watched as the night sky began to twinkle with the first hint of stars.

"Thank you," Sasuke whispered softly.

"Hm? For what?" Naruto whispered just as softly.

"For offering me some company. I don't know why I was able to calm down so quickly, but I guess the surprise of seeing someone else here kind of shocked me out of my anger," Sasuke mused. 

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad you accepted my glorious presence," Naruto said cheekily, smiling at his new friend.

Sasuke chuckled lightly, before pulling himself to his feet. "I should probably head home now. I could walk you back to your house first, if you want me to? Your leg looks like it's been injured."

"Oh, uh, no. No, it's fine. It'll heal quickly, I'll be fine. Um, do you...do you, maybe...want to meet here tomorrow?" Naruto hastened to deflect the offer, then gave one of his own.

The Uchiha stared at the sheepish boy, before agreeing to meet him sometime in the afternoon. The responding grin that lit up Naruto's face made him feel like the best person on earth.

"Great! I'll see you tomorrow, then! It was nice meeting you, Sasuke!"

And just like that, Naruto was gone. 

* * *

 Over the next few months, Naruto and Sasuke secretly met with each other at the river in Training Ground 3 whenever they could, and when there were no shinobi around training for some reason or another. Eventually, the weather became too cold to meet up outside during the evenings, so Sasuke hesitantly offered his house as a place to hang out.

The first time Naruto had seen the Uchiha estate, he had just stared at the building with a slack jaw and wide eyes. Then, he had turned to his friend, extremely serious, and claimed that he was now going to live there with Sasuke. 

At first, Sasuke had been reluctant to share his home, but Naruto's puppy-dog eyes were  _lethal_. 

Now, they didn't have to secretly meet up anywhere, as they literally live two doors down from each other. 

But they both missed the serenity of the river, and decided that they would just bundle up extremely well, and just visit their river for a little while. However, they did not anticipate to find a girl about their age kneeling and crying at the edge of the body of water. 

Naruto was beginning to feel a sense of deja vu.

Of course, Sasuke obviously had no experience in comforting crying girls, or boys, for that matter, and immediately froze when he saw the girl. 

Naruto, already having had a confrontation almost like this one, repeated his actions from what seemed like so long ago, motioning for Sasuke to remain hidden in the trees. 

Silently, he slipped into a criss-cross applesauce sitting position next to her. 

"Hello. Do you want some company?" he asked softly.

Just like last time, his companion startled and whipped her head around to look at him in shock, but did not lash out like Sasuke had done. Instead, she took one look at the kind, warm gaze he fixed on her, and launched herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck in a tight hug. 

Not having expected her to hug him, Naruto froze for a split second, before gently wrapping his own arms around her waist, making soft hushing noises into her ear. Her crying only intensified.

For an indeterminable amount of time, they remained like that, until the girl's crying had subsided into little sniffles, and she pulled herself from the gentle hug. 

"I'm-I'm s-so sorry," she hiccuped. "I did-didn't mean to-to trap you l-like that."

"Hey, it's okay. It felt good to cry, didn't it? And it's better to share your pain with other people than to hold it all inside of yourself. Isn't that right, Sasuke?" Naruto replied, turning his head towards his friend, gesturing for him to join them.

The girl looked at the new arrival shyly, tucking a strand of bubblegum-pink hair behind her ear. 

Sasuke nodded, as he found that sharing his past with Naruto after one-to-many nightmares had lifted an invisible burden from his chest. He felt closer to Naruto now than ever, even if he knew that Naruto still had many secrets he had yet to tell Sasuke. 

"Thank you," the girl whispered. "I'm Haruno Sakura."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"And I'm Naruto! It's nice to meet you, Sakura-chan!" Naruto beamed.

Sakura giggled. "Please, just call me Sakura. After all, you just let me cry into your shoulder. It's only fair if you get to call me by my name without honorifics."

"Alright, then you can call me Naruto! And just call this broody guy Sasuke-OOF!" Naruto wheezed as he clutched his chest where Sasuke had just elbowed him.

Sakura laughed, and it filled both Naruto and Sasuke with a feeling of warmth and home.

"So, Sakura," Sasuke began, "why were you out here? It's really cold, you might get sick."

The girl turned her green eyes to her hands, and she sighed. "My dad, he's...well, he b-blames me for my m-mother's death. She-she died when I was born, so I...I never got to meet her. And I've only ever known my dad to be alcoholic and...abusive. But you can't tell anyone! It's not his fault, he's just full of grief," Sakura panicked.

"Hey, whoa, it's okay! We won't tell anyone if you don't want us to, but we aren't just gonna sit by and watch as you get hurt. So, if Sasuke agrees to it, why don't you live with us at the Uchiha compound? You already feel like part of the group, and it makes sense to just invite you to live with us. Right, Sasuke?" Naruto turned his hopeful gaze to his friend, and Sasuke didn't even have to look at Naruto before he agreed. He, too, felt as if Sakura was a puzzle piece that had just found its way home. 

Sakura hesitated for a second, before tentatively smiling. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try?" 

The responding grin that Naruto gave her was positively blinding.

* * *

Two years passed by in a flash, and the three friends now considered themselves to be more siblings than friends. Of course, they kept their relationship a secret from anybody outside of themselves, just to keep suspicion off of them. After all, it would be just  _great_  if the demon-brat was seen with the last Uchiha and an innocent civilian girl. 

And yeah, after a while, (only about a month or so, Sakura was  _scary_ ), Naruto had finally told his siblings-in-all-but-blood about the demon he harbored within the seal on his stomach and his parents. Surprisingly for Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had only been horrified at the treatment he had suffered at the hands of Konoha's civilians and ninja.

("And they call themselves protectors of Konoha. I'll show them  _protector_ -"

"Hey, it's okay Sakura, just calm down-"

"Dobe, you have three seconds to tell me the names of every person who has ever even laid a finger on you with the intention to cause serious harm or I  _swear_ -"

"Oh no you don't! Get back in here Sasuke-!")

Naruto also, within a month or so, had been able to figure out how to create a Shadow Clone with Kurama's conscience. Ever since then, Kurama had been able to teach every ninja technique he could in the time before the start of the Academy to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke had picked up the arts of ninjutsu like a fish to water because of his family line. So far, Kurama had managed to teach him some of the more basic fire element techniques, but refused to teach him more until Sasuke was capable of performing the jutsus he already knew, in his sleep. Sasuke had taken the challenge, much to Kurama's amusement. 

Sakura had been interested in field medics, once she had learned from her father--accidentally--that her mother had been a field medic kunoichi in her younger years. She hadn't been a well-known medic, however, and had been forgotten by many people. Sakura was determined to get her mother's name out there again through her own. But Sakura wasn't only studying medicine, no, she was also learning how to create poisons, something that terrified Naruto and Sasuke. "If I'm going to learn how to treat people, I'm also going to have to learn what kinds of poisons there are if I ever want to be able to recognize them in the field. Also, it doesn't hurt to have some paralyzing poison on senbon needles if I ever need to quickly immobilize someone," she had said in response. Kurama had given her scrolls and books to read in order for her to familiarize herself with her chosen field. It wasn't uncommon now to find Sakura with her nose buried in an old tome of some sort. 

Naruto, to the glee and pride of Kurama, had taken to learning fūinjutsu like an Uzumaki to sealing techniques. The speed at which he learned how to read and decode different types of seals was astounding, even for an Uzumaki. He learned all he could about seals before attempting to create a simple storage tag. Kurama had expected it to fail, but to his astonishment, it had worked perfectly, if not overly so. Naruto had tried to explain. "I think writing seals is kind of an instinctive thing for me. I'm not sure how it works, but if i could describe it...? I guess you could say that the language of seals is more like second nature to me. Whatever needs to be written or done for a seal to activate just seems to come to me. I wish I could describe the feeling more, but when I write seals, it...feels like coming home." Kurama hadn't asked for any further explanations. 

A few weeks into their training, Kurama had required all three of them to choose a weapon to specialize in. He had disguised himself with a henge, told Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to do the same, (at this point all of the Academy-level jutus were child's play for them, no pun intended), and had taken them to the best weapons store in all of the Hidden Villages. The demon had used a type of teleportation jutsu, so his "students" had no idea where they were, but they appreciated the anonymity. 

The store had been humble, owned by a father and his son, who were taught by their grandfathers and fathers, and so on. Secrets had been passed on generation through generation, and new techniques created over hundreds of years. The metal and materials that made up each unique and individual weapon are made by the Kaneda family, and are known for their durability, strength, and immeasurably reliability.

However, the technique that only the Kaneda's use, is called "Chakra Infusion." Using the natural chakra around them, the Kaneda family is able to infuse each and every weapon with its own unique chakra signature. And every shinobi that has been able to afford a weapon from the Kaneda family has said that the  _weapon_  had chosen  _them_. 

It was here that Kurama planned for each of his pupils to chakra-match with a weapon. 

"Now," Kurama had begun with a stern voice, but a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I want you to focus your chakra throughout your body, then close your eyes. You should feel some sort of pull towards something in the shop, and I don't want you to open your eyes until you have something in your hand. We'll go one at a time. Sakura, you first."

Sakura had turned to her brothers nervously, but then straightened her back and pulled back her shoulders, the perfect image of confidence. She had turned to the shop, and then entered a second later. Sasuke and Naruto had waited anxiously for her outside of the store so as not to distract her.

The lithe girl had walked back out dragging an enormous battle-ax behind her.

Sasuke had been the next to go, smirking at his brother and sister. 

He had come back with a beautiful tanto sword with a flat tip at his waist.

Naruto had been the last to go, and had grinned brightly at his family before darting into the store with Kurama reminding him to keep his eyes closed. 

He had come back with a long-handled naginata spear slung across his shoulders and a happy grin on his face. 

Kurama had immediately whisked them to Training Ground 3 to teach them how to use their weapon.

At the moment, Naruto was sitting on the ground underneath a tree, staring contemplatively at the ground with a hand on his chin while his siblings were practicing with their weapons, each against one of Naruto's Shadow Clones. (Of course, the clones had Kurama's conscience in them. Naruto didn't know how to use a tanto sword or a battle-ax. Yet. Kurama had assured all three of them that they would learn how to use each other's weapons so that they would have more options in the field). They were all currently above average when it came to wielding their own weapon, but they were no masters. When they became good enough to teach other people how to use their weapon, they would teach each other.

Finally, after a long while, he nodded to himself, then stood and brushed himself off.

"Sakura! Fuzzy-butt! Duck-butt! Come here, I wanna show you something!"

Before either Kurama or Sasuke had a chance to throw back any retorts or announce any sort of indignation, Naruto was taking off his blue hoodie, leaving himself in only his black tank top, black cargo shorts, and black shinobi sandals. 

Then, without any warning, he launched himself at Sasuke at a speed that would make any chuunin jealous.

But, because Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had spent the past two years studying ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and their chosen weapons as well as training their speed, agility, and reflexes, Sasuke was ready for Naruto's attack in less than a split second.

That did not mean, however, that he was not surprised.

"What the hell, dobe?! What are you doing?!" Sasuke yelled as he began to block the punches and kicks thrown at him.

"Just hold on a sec, okay? I'm trying something out!" Naruto replied with a grin.

Sakura, who was watching the impromptu spar with an exasperated Kurama, could only sigh and shake her head. "Boys will be boys," she muttered under her breath. Then, she gasped.

Out of seemingly absolutely  _nowhere_ , Naruto had drawn his naginata, and was now lightly pinning Sasuke to the ground with it.

"What...?" Sasuke breathed.

Naruto glowed with happiness. "I did it! It actually worked!" he cried with glee.

Even Kurama was surprised. "Kit, how'd you do that?"

Still grinning, Naruto held out his right hand for his shocked audience.

Silence.

"Naruto, there's nothing there," Sakura said with false patience.

"Oh! I forgot that this one was different. Gimme a sec...and...there!"

Silence.

"That. Is the single most complicated seal I've ever seen. And I come from the Uchiha Clan."

On Naruto's palm, an intricate seal was now glowing a soft blue due to the normal chakra he was pushing into it to make it visible. Naruto had created the seal using the sharpest kunai he owned, placing complicated symbols and conditions and words into the seal. A perfect circle about the size of a finger tip was the center piece of the seal. But that was where the simplicity ended.

Branching off in nine different directions were intricate lines, each slightly different from the next. Each line was made up of nine different words, and each line gave the seal some other purpose. Surrounding the lines were larger, imperfect circles, interlocking with each other in different pieces, as if creating a puzzle. Each piece had nine, small symbols, each unique and not like the rest.

All of the different parts of the seal were delicate, but made for one very, complicated seal.

"It's supposed to remain invisible to anyone unless given chakra by me. I designed it to only activate if I push some of Kurama's chakra into it along with a portion of my own. That way, nobody can access my naginata without my say-so. I decided to test it out to see if it would work in a real battle situation. I wanted to place a seal on you guys too, so that you can store your weapons on your body somewhere so you don't ever lose it," Naruto explained. Then he grinned cheekily. "I'm such a genius, aren't I?"

But rather than looking excited at the prospect of gaining another seal, Sasuke and Sakura had an air of hesitance around them.

"Naruto, you've already given us weight seals, storage seals, and plenty of other seals you haven't told us the purpose of yet. Are you sure you're okay to give us another one?" Sakura asked.

Naruto tilted his head at her with an adorably confused look. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well..." Sakura shifted on her feet, looking slightly uncomfortable. She gave Sasuke a look.

"Dobe. We know that seals are important to you, and you've already given us so many. Are you sure it doesn't make you upset that you're giving us something that's precious to you?" Sasuke voiced.

The blond was astonished. Confused, but astonished. "Of course I'm okay with it! You guys are the precious ones. If my seals can offer you ways to keep your lives safe, then I'll gladly give them to you! You guys...you guys are the only people in this world who've ever given me a chance to prove that I'm more than just some demon boy. I'm really happy that I got meet you two, and I'm really happy that I can give something back. So, think of me giving you seals as a way of saying "thank you" for all you've done for me, okay?"

By the end of his mini speech, Sakura was trying not to cry, and Sasuke had an uncharacteristic soft air about his person. 

"Sure dobe. We accept."

Naruto beamed.

"Alright! Enough of this mushy stuff!" Kurama interrupted. "You three start your education at the academy tomorrow, and I've taught you skills that give you the power to rival strong chuunin. However, you must never reveal just how much power you really have. I can't tell you why, but there is an evil lurking in Konoha, and it will consume you if you become too greedy for power. We also have another problem. When you graduate from the academy, you and the rest of your classmates will be separated into teams of three genin, led by a jounin sensei."

Naruto perked up. "Oh! I read about that! (Yes, Duck-face, I know how to read, don't give me that look!) Those teams will be decided based off of strength and ability. Usually, a team will specialize in some sort of field technique. The best example is the Ino-Shika-Cho team. They have a strategist, a man for defense, and a man for offense," he explained.

"You're right, Naruto," Kurama nodded. "Although, if you three want to get onto a team together, you'll have to do something different, seeing as only Sasuke comes from a well-known family."

There was a pause as they all tried to think of an idea, until Naruto lit up like a firework.

"Wait! I remember reading something in the library that we might be able to replicate. The book said that there's a team that consists of the top two students, usually the top rookie and the top kunoichi, in the same team with the student that comes in dead last for the graduation exam. If Sasuke plays the cold, indifferent top rookie, Sakura pretends to be his adoring fan-girl while being the top kunoichi, and I play the idiotic dead last, then we should all end up on a team together without our real identities being suspected.

"I also read that a jounin sensei will usually give their new genin team their own test to determine whether or not to send them back to the academy. If we all get onto the same team, we'll have to keep our act up until our jounin sensei accepts us as his or her team. We should also change the way we dress so that we match our "new" personalities. What d'ya think?"

Silence. 

"I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they realize that you aren't as dumb as you pretend to be, Naruto. Let's just hope we don't break character from the sheer obnoxiousness that we're sure to face from our future classmates. But otherwise, I think I'm starting to like your idea," Sakura agreed. 

"Hn."

Naruto gasped and gestured to Sasuke wildly. "YES! YES! Do that! Do that every time someone tries to get a response out of you. It'll get on their nerves, _and_ it'll strengthen your..."last Uchiha" persona."

Sasuke stared at his brother, then nodded. 

Naruto turned to his sister. "Sakura, my beloved sister, one of the lights of my life, an angel in disguise...you're going to have to wear a dress."

"WHAT?!" Sakura shrieked. 

"I'M SORRY PLEASE DON'T KILL ME THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO CEMENT YOUR PERSONALITY AS A FAN-GIRL!" Naruto pleaded while cowering behind Kurama, who promptly poofed away. 

[Hey! Thanks for nothing, you useless demon!]

[Sorry kit, you're on your own. Not even the sharingan could force me to face an angry Sakura, especially since she's learned The Slug Princess' chakra fist technique.]

[Whatever. Gosh, what do I even pay you for?]

[The hell are you talking about?! You  _don't_  pay me!]

[It's an expression, dumb cat.]

[Insults. Really?]

"Naruto, can't I just wear what I always do?! Besides, if I wear a dress, I won't be able to access some of my medical seals!" Sakura complained. She gestured to her bare midriff, exposed underneath her pink, razor neckline crop top. Black shorts, red shinobi sandals, and short, black gloves completed her look. Two years ago, when Kurama had begun to seriously train Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, they had picked out outfits that would serve as everyday clothes, and as training clothes. Naruto had helped Sakura pick out her outfit because he had suggested that, instead of carrying various scrolls and pouches to help her carry her medical supplies, he could draw storage seals directly onto her skin. 

Sakura now had invisible seals on her stomach, forearms, thighs, and one at the base of her throat. Her stomach seals held various plants, poisons, and other materials to help her make medicine or poison while traveling. Her forearm seals held bandages, needles, and many other various medical instruments. Her thigh seals held senbon. 

Just. Senbon. 

The seals etched onto her skin would never wear down, and only she could activate them. The only downside was that she had to be touching the seal to activate them. Thus, her extremely revealing ninja outfit.

The seal at the base of her throat, however, was identical to the seals on her brothers' throats. They were used to communicate secretly without worrying about any sort of interference. If one of them were to activate their seal, (it was activated with a fingerprint, but only one of theirs), the other two were activated, and only they could hear if any of them spoke. The seal also hid any movement of their lips while it was active. The seal automatically deactivated when one of them spoke out loud without channeling any chakra into the seal. It had taken Naruto  _months_  to figure out the fine details of the seal, and he had named it the Speak seal.

"Come on Sakura! You won't need them while we're at the academy! Besides, you can go back to wearing your usual stuff once we get accepted as a genin team! Please?" Naruto reasoned and begged.

Sakura huffed and grumbled under her breath, before sighing heavily, and reluctantly nodding her consent.

"Great! Sasuke, I guess you can keep wearing what you have on. I don't think it really matters for you," Naruto continued.

Sasuke wore a high-collared blue shirt with the Uchiha symbol on the back. White shorts, shinobi bandages wrapped around his calves, forearm warmers, and blue shinobi sandals made up the rest of his outfit.

He nodded.

Then Naruto looked down at himself.

There was silence for a moment.

"Bright orange," he announced.

Sasuke choked, and Sakura performed a spit-take.

"W-what?!" they chorused incredulously.

"Something bright orange should give me the look of a clueless idiot. I may hate wearing the color orange, and I can always burn the outfit later, but we really need to sell our...alternate personalities if we want to end up on a team together. Besides, it's only gonna be for four years. We'll be able to manage!"

Sakura and Sasuke shared a look, then turned to their younger brother and smiled.

"Yeah, we can do it."

* * *

 "Oh, my gosh. I can't  _stand_  being such a, such a  _girl_! Not to mention over my own  _brother_!"

Naruto and Sasuke watched anxiously as Sakura paced back and forth in the living room of their house, close to tearing out her own hair.

"And  _you_!" she shouted, pointing at Naruto.

He let out a terrified squeak.

"How can you stand being treated like some, some.. _idiot_ , when you could probably  _destroy_  all of our classmates together in a fight, with one hand  _tied_   _behind_   _your_   _back_!" Sakura raged.

Then, she aimed her furious expression at Sasuke.

He would never admit that he squeaked.

"As for you, I know it's just an act, but seeing you all broody and emo is so heartbreaking! And seeing all of those girls fall for it, when they don't even know the real you? It's just so, so, so-!" She struggled to find the right word to describe the torrent of emotions swirling inside her.

"ARGH!" she screamed, throwing herself face-first onto the floor, sagging in defeat.

There was a tense silence in the room, before Naruto cautiously approached his sister, patting her back gently.

"There, there. It's gonna be okay. We're two months into the academy, so we just haven't had enough time to completely adjust to our fake personalities. Besides, isn't it kind of fun to be able to practice deception? Think of this as our first mission together! Assignment: make sure we end up on the same genin team together. Mission parameters: do anything necessary to make sure nobody suspects we're more than who we appear to be. Doesn't that sound fun, Sakura?" Naruto encouraged.

"Dobe's right, Sakura. This will be a good chance to practice acting. As shinobi, we need to be able to deflect attention from the parts of ourselves that we want hidden," Sasuke agreed.

Sakura sighed unhappily. "It's no fun when you guys are right. But you  _are_  right. Let's make the most of this opportunity, yeah?"

She got two, confident nods from her brothers.

* * *

Umino Iruka sighed in irritation as he,  _once_   _again_ , dragged Uzumaki Naruto back into class, bound and gagged.

But for one, inexplicable moment, he felt the most intense killer intent he'd ever experienced aimed at him for no more than a split second, before it disappeared. 

_'What the hell was that?! There're only students in this room, none of which could have produced such a potent killer intent. But then, who...?'_

He was brought out of his thoughts when a struggling Naruto managed to get the gag out of his mouth. 

"Iruka-sensei! Why'd ya have to gag me?! That thing was  _nasty_!"

Mentally sighing, he prayed for patience, before he turned to his class. "Well, because of Naruto, we're going to retest the Henge Jutsu, even the people who've already passed!"

"HAH?!" the class shouted.

Grumbling, they filed down to the front of the classroom, shooting glares at Naruto as they passed.

Finally, they were ready.

"Begin," Iruka instructed.

Giggling, Sakura stepped forward. "Haruno Sakura, ready! Henge!" she shouted, bringing her hands up into the ram hand sign. 

Iruka examined the henged Sakura. "Okay!" he said, satisfied. 

"Yes!," Sakura cheered. "Did you see that, Sasuke-kun?!" she squealed sweetly at Sasuke. (Inwardly, she was gagging and cringing at herself).

"Next, Uchiha Sasuke."

With an emotionless mask on his face, Sasuke walked forward with his hands in his pockets, the total image of indifference. Not saying a word, he took his turn, and walked to the back of the line of students after Iruka's nod of approval. (Inwardly, he was slightly unnerved at seeing Sakura act like one of his fan-girls, even after four years of playing this charade).

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."

From his place on Naruto's left, Nara Shikamaru gave the blond a disgruntled look. "Jeez, this is such a pain," he complained.

"And it's all your fault," Yamanaka Ino added from Naruto's right.

"Like I care," Naruto grumbled, a scowl on his face. (He was not pouting, thank-you-very-much). Rearranging his face into a smirk, Naruto sauntered forward with, (what seemed like to the rest of the class, but not Sakura or Sasuke), false confidence to stand in front of Iruka.

"Henge!" Naruto shouted.

Iruka was then launched back from the twin streams of blood gushing from his nose at the sight of a naked, female Naruto. (It's critical to remember that the, uh, important parts were sufficiently covered by wisps of smoke).

Naruto cackled as he dropped the henge. "Haha! How'd ya like that?! I call it the "Sexy Jutsu"!"

Springing back to his spot, Iruka began to yell in Naruto's face. "YOU FOOL! STOP MAKING UP IDIOTIC JUTSUS!"

Naruto cringed back and rubbed his ears. "Jeez, Iruka-sensei! No need to yell, I'm not deaf!"

Iruka faltered for a moment, before gathering himself and pointing Naruto towards the line with a stern glance.

Then, Naruto discreetly activated the seal at the base of his throat. 

{You guys hear me?} Naruto asked.

To an outsider, Naruto was simply scowling.

But to Sakura and Sasuke, he had asked them for a conformation that they could hear him. They carefully retained their alternate personas while speaking to their brother through the Speak seal.

{I can hear you, Naruto} Sakura responded.

{Loud and clear, dobe} Sasuke replied.

{Good. Listen, I don't think I should sleep at the house tonight. And before you say anything, hear me out. The little disappearing act I pulled earlier? Yeah, that was me vandalizing the Hokage faces on the mountainside} Naruto started.

{YOU WHAT?!}  
  
{Dobe, what the hell?!}

{Hold on! I needed to get Iruka sort of frustrated with me, then get a little bit of bonding time with him later because I'm a little heart-breaker and I know to get him to buy me ramen for dinner. I need him to fail me, during the graduation test.}

{WHAT?!}  
  
{Dobe, what the hell?!}

{Wait. Just. A. Moment! Gosh, you impatient people! Anyway, haven't you guys noticed that Mizuki-sensei has been acting really strange lately? He's...he's been, I don't know...different. I think it might be something worth investigating. I know for a fact that he hates Kurama, so he might target me if I fail the test. I might be able to prove something if he comes after me} Naruto explained.

{Are you absolutely sure? I mean, sure, Mizuki-sensei might feel a little off every once in a while, but does that really mean you should investigate? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want to make sure you stay safe and aren't accused of jumping to the wrong conclusions if it turns out to be nothing, Naruto} Sakura fretted.

{I agree with Sakura about that you should stay safe if you decide to investigate, but I think you  _should_  investigate. Mizuki-sensei has a shady past, even as a Konoha shinobi. If you need our help, though, you know we'll come if you call, dobe.} Sasuke gave Naruto a pointed look when he was sure no one else but Sakura or Naruto would notice. 

Naruto sighed quietly, but nodded once. {Don't worry, you two. Besides, even if Mizuki-sensei tries anything, I'm sure the Hokage will catch him. But I won't let Mizuki try to do anything that might harm the village if I can stop him myself. And I promise to call if I need help.}

Sakura and Sasuke nodded.

After class, Iruka grabbed Naruto by his arm, and dragged him all the way to Hokage mountain where cleaning supplies were already waiting for them. 

Leaping onto the head of the first Hokage, Iruka peered down at his student, and sat down for the long wait. "Naruto, I'm not allowing you to go home until every face is cleaned off, understand?"

Naruto grumbled, squinting up at his teacher. "Whatever, it's not like there's anybody waiting at home anyway," he lied. He went back to scrubbing the paint he had slathered on the rock. 

Iruka sighed, and scratched his cheek, looking up at the sky. "Naruto, if you want...after you clean up this mess, I'll take you out for some ramen, okay?" he said hesitantly.

"Really?! YES! Alright!" Naruto cheered.

_'Phase one, complete.'_

And, true to his word, after Naruto had cleaned every single speck of paint off of the mountain, Iruka took Naruto to Ichiraku's ramen stand. 

After watching Naruto eat for a few moments, Iruka decided to ask the nagging question at the back of his mind. "Naruto, why did you do that? You know who the Hokage are, don't you?"

Slurping his noodles, Naruto looked up at his teacher. "Yeah, I know who they are." He finished his bowl before continuing. "They're people who earned the title of Lord Hokage because they were the best ninja of their time, right?"

Naruto, of course, knew that the title of Hokage was given to someone for more than just being the best of their time, but he couldn't let Iruka know he was smarter than everyone gave him credit for. Except Kurama and his siblings, obviously.

"Especially the Fourth Hokage, who was a hero that saved the village from the nine-tail demon fox," he finished. Naruto didn't blame his father one bit about having Kurama sealed in him. In fact, he thanked his father, because Kurama had taught him so much about being a ninja, and had been a constant companion throughout his life.

"Then why, Naruto?" Iruka asked.

Naruto panicked for a split second. It wasn't like he could say, "Well, I wanted you to bond with me a little bit so that you would fail me during the graduation test because I'm seriously suspicious about your co-worker and need to investigate what he plans to do to the village. Don't worry, I have no grudge against the Hokage!" He hadn't given much thought as to what he would say if Iruka asked him why he had defaced Hokage mountain.

"Because I'll become Hokage one day!" he blurted without thinking. Naruto saw Iruka sit up slightly in surprise.

_'Damn. I said that without thinking. Hurry up and say something inspirational!'_

"And I'll be the best Hokage of all time, so that everyone will finally learn to accept me for who I am!" he spouted. 

Iruka just stared at him.

_'Shit. Divert, divert!'_

"By the way, sensei, I need a favor! Could I borrow your headband for a few hours?" he asked, trying not to sound desperate about changing the subject.

"What, this? Sorry, Naruto! Only people who've graduated the academy can wear this! Maybe tomorrow...wait, is that why you took off your goggles?" Iruka laughed.

Naruto pouted. "Aw! You're such a meanie! One more bowl!"

"Hah?!"

_'Phase two, complete.'_

* * *

"Today's the day of the graduation test! This year, you are going to be tested on the Clone Jutsu."

Iruka opened up his class on the day of the test with a supportive smile. 

When Naruto's turn came to take the test, he disguised pointed looks to Sasuke and Sakura as a smug smile aimed at the rest of the class. He got a few glares, but most people ignored him, including, seemingly, the two people he wanted the attention of. He knew, though, that they had noticed him. He had felt it through the Panic seal. 

The Panic seal was actually, and originally, the seal that Naruto had created to store their individual weapons. He had added another function when the thought struck him that if, and when, they needed a way to send a distress signal and couldn't activate Speak seal, they could send a sharp flare of chakra into the Panic seal, and it would give the other wearers of the same seal a cold sensation in their hand. The three of them had agreed that if they couldn't activate the Speak seal, then a warm sensation would mean a silent acknowledgement, and if there was a cold sensation, then it would mean there was an actual emergency.

Of course, a sharp flare of chakra would activate the Panic part of the seal, but only blood would release the weapon stored in the seal on Sasuke and Sakura's parts. 

For Naruto, he had to mix Kurama's chakra with his own to release his weapon.

It had been a stroke of brilliance on Naruto's part.

("See, this is why it makes me so mad that people don't realize how brilliant you really are, Naruto!"

"It's alright, Sakura, we'll be able to reveal ourselves soon enough."

"You'd better hope so, dobe, or I'm going to explode with frustration.")

Turning away from the class, Naruto followed Iruka into a separate room, where Mizuki was already waiting for them behind a table that was lined neatly with brand new hitai-ate.

"Alright, Naruto, we're ready. Begin," Iruka said, taking his place behind the table. 

Screwing up his face in faux concentration, Naruto only pulled on his body's natural chakra, and brought his hands up into the ram hand sign.

"Clone Jutsu!"

Chakra swirled around him, before a washed out clone appeared next to Naruto, on the ground with a silly expression on its face.

[Thanks, Kurama, for teaching me how to use the Shadow Clone jutsu. If this was all I could do, I would definitely be laughed at for the rest of my life] Naruto told Kurama.

[Don't seat it, kit. Besides, I don't think anyone would have laughed at you, considering you probably would have destroyed them with your newly acquired Kyuubi Chakra Mode] Kurama responded with a wicked grin that Naruto could see in his mind-scape. 

[Gosh, that was a pain-and-a-half to learn. I still haven't mastered it, though, and I can't hold it any longer than seven seconds, considering the fact that I don't have enough control over your chakra yet.]

[Don't worry. You'll get better over time, and I'll help you along the way. You're also gonna have to tell Sasuke and Sakura about it too.]

[I know. I want it to be a surprise, though. Hopefully, I'll have the mode mastered by then.]

Throughout their entire exchange, Iruka and Mizuki had been debating whether or not to let Naruto pass. 

Naruto was rudely jolted out of his conversation with Kurama when Iruka slammed his hands down on the table.

"I don't care, Mizuki! He failed to create a single clone when the other students were able to form at least three!" Iruka turned to Naruto. "Naruto, I'm sorry, but you do not pass."

Startled, the blond quickly rearranged his face into one of despair, before running from the room. He did not miss Mizuki's thoughtful look as he ran, though. 

Bursting from the academy, Naruto spotted the swing that hung from the tree in front of the academy, and walked over to it while activating the Speak seal.

{As planned, I did not pass the exam, and Mizuki seemed to have been thinking about something when I, uh, "fled from the room in despair."}

{Seriously? Dramatic much?} Sakura snorted.

{It's the dobe. What did you expect?} Sasuke replied.

{You guys!} Naruto whined.

He heard Sakura and Sasuke laugh.

{Yeah yeah, laugh it up. By the way, I'm sitting on the swing in front of the academy, waiting for the tests to be over. I'm gonna wait and see if Mizuki-sensei approaches me. If he doesn't, I'll try and find him. If he does, I'll contact you. Wait for me back at the house.}

{Right.}

{Hn.}

Just then, the academy bell rang, and newly made genin swarmed out of the doors like ants. Parents suddenly started showing up, graduating their children on becoming ninja.

Naruto noticed a few glares being directed his way, but he ignored them and their words. 

He felt Mizuki's chakra before he heard him.

"Hey, Naruto. Come with me."

Naruto followed Mizuki across the village, coming to a stop on a random balcony that overlooked part of Konoha.

{I'm with Mizuki now. Don't respond, I'm about to deactivate the seal.}

The Panic seal warmed his hand.

For a while, Mizuki and Naruto sat in silence, before Mizuki spoke. "You know, Iruka-sensei didn't fail you to be mean," he said gently.

Mentally, Naruto scoffed. _'You ain't fooling no one.'_

Outwardly, Naruto let his face fall into one of sad confusion. "Then why only me?"

"He wants you to become strong from the bottom of his heart. You're like him, you see? You both don't have parents."

_'Tch. Stooping so low as to mention my lack of parents. Joke's on you!'_

"But I really wanted to graduate."

"Heh...guess I have no choice, then."

_'What?'_

"I'll let you in on a big secret," Mizuki said, turning his head slightly to smile at Naruto.

"There's a scroll in Hokage tower, called The Scroll of Sealing. If you can perform at least  _one_  of the techniques in that scroll, Iruka will  _have_  to let you graduate. All you have to do is borrow it for a little while without anyone knowing. Can you do that?" Mizuki revealed. 

Naruto didn't have to fake the look of astonishment on his face.

 _'Is he kidding?! He's basically telling me to steal_ The Scroll of Sealing _! He could get me thrown in jail! Or worse, killed! Well, I wouldn't be surprised it that's actually what he's counting on. Damn, what should I do?'_

Without thinking, he nodded. 

"Great! I promise I won't tell anyone. I just want you to graduate. You deserve it, after all," Mizuki said sweetly.

_'Pfft. Yeah, right. You hate Kurama, and you know he's inside me. I bet you just want the scroll for yourself.'_

"There's this place in the forest near the outer-edge of the village, so you can hide there when you get the scroll. I'll meet you there, and teach you some of the jutsu from the scroll, okay?" Mizuki finished.

"Really?! Thanks, sensei!" 

Then without another word, Naruto got to his feet, and launched himself in the direction of Hokage tower.

Before he got there, however, he activated the Speak seal.

{So. Mizuki wants me to steal The Scroll of Sealing} he said nonchalantly.

{He WHAT?!} Sakura cried.

{Shit} Sasuke cursed. {Dobe, that's big. What are you going to do? And please don't tell me you're actually going to steal it.}

{Uh, well, you see-} 

{IDIOT! There's no way Mizuki  _isn't_  going to tell someone, and then you're going to get caught! This is really bad! I think we should just tell Iruka-sensei and let the  _official_  chuunin-leveled ninja take care of Mizuki. We might be on par with high-leveled chuunin, but other people don't know that! To them, we're just a fan-girl, an idiot, and an emo Uchiha! We don't have the authority to do anything, Naruto. Please come back to the compound! We'll come up with a plan, like we always do!} Sakura tried to reason and plead with Naruto with logic that he couldn't deny was sound, but Naruto was stubborn, and would trust his instincts this time.

{Trust me, Sasuke, Sakura. I know what I'm doing. Besides, I have Kurama with me! We'll be careful, I promise. I'm about to enter the tower now, so I'm dropping the connection. Don't try to contact me, please. I don't want to be distracted.} Before either of his siblings could reply, Naruto deactivated the Speak seal, and entered Hokage tower through the open window of the Hokage's office. 

_'Jeez, doesn't he ever do his paperwork? Eh, not my problem. Now where is that scroll...?'_

Twenty minutes, a few heart attacks, and a couple strings of silent curses later, Naruto was sprinting away from the tower with the scroll of sealing--hehe-- _sealed_  inside of a spare storage seal etched on his hip.

Like Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke both had seals engraved on different parts of their body, but used them for different things. Naruto had storage seals on his hip, his forearms, and his left shoulder, the Speak seal at the base of his throat, the Panic seal on the palm of his right hand, and weight seals on his ankles. He couldn't place any seals on his stomach because, obviously, the Fourth's seal was already there. 

Naruto used the various storage seals on his body to store bomb tags, paper, ink, and ink brushes. He  _was_ , however, training himself to create seals with just his mind. 

Some advanced ninja are able to create seals just by imagining them, channeling chakra into their hand, and placing that hand on the object that they wanted to place the seal. Naruto couldn't do that quite yet, but he was close. A few more months and he might be able to create a simple exploding seal just by imagining it and correctly molding his chakra in the way that would allow him to place the seal on an object without ink or brushes. He was very excited.

Naruto quickly made his way towards the place that Mizuki mentioned, tree hopping quickly through the forest. Leaves and dirt got all over his jacket and in his hair before he reached his destination. Dropping to the ground, he sat down, and began to wait for Mizuki to show up while unsealing the scroll from its place on his hip and slinging it across his back. 

After a few minutes, however, it wasn't Mizuki who showed up, but Iruka. 

Panting and sweating, Iruka forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, and loomed over Naruto. "Hey you, Naruto."

Naruto laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Looks like you found me...and I've only learned one jutsu!" Realizing that he could blame his knowledge of the Shadow Clone jutsu on The Scroll of Sealing, Naruto quickly tacked on the last part of his sheepish sentence.

Then, he felt Mizuki's chakra signature at the edge of his mind. He quickly got into character.

"Listen, Iruka-sensei! I'm gonna show you an amazing jutsu! Isn't it true that you'll let me graduate if I can do one jutsu from this scroll?" he gushed.

Iruka's eyes widened. "W-who told you that?!"

"Mizuki-sensei did! He told me about the scroll, and this place...," Naruto trailed off at seeing Iruka's expression.

_'Good. Doubt Mizuki. If you're the one to tell the Hokage about Mizuki's disloyalty, he'll believe you. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the Old Man was already watching us with that stalker orb of his.'_

Then, he saw kunai knives heading straight for Iruka's unprotected back. 

Not even thinking, he launched himself at his teacher, knocking them both down onto the floor.

"Naruto-?!" Iruka grunted.

But Naruto was already glaring up at Mizuki, who was standing on a tree branch with a surprised expression on his face, with two, large shuriken strapped to his back. 

"Well, color me impressed! You actually managed not to die," Mizuki sneered, recovering from his momentary shock. "But you won't be so lucky next time."

Before Naruto could reply, Iruka quickly stood up, pushing the blond behind him as he did so.

"I see now how it is," Iruka growled.

Mizuki chuckled. "Of course you do. Now, Naruto, hand me that scroll."

Naruto's lips pulled back into a snarl. "Not on your  _life_."

Iruka gave him a warning look. "Naruto, I want you to run from here as far as you can. Go get help, if possible. That scroll is a dangerous object that contains forbidden ninja jutsu-!"

"I know, Iruka-sensei," Naruto interrupted. 

"W-what?" 

"I said, I know." Naruto lowered his voice so that only Iruka could hear him. "I only learned the Shadow Clone jutsu because I suck at using the  regular Clone jutsu, so I thought that this one might be a way to help me graduate. I've read about The Scroll of Sealing, so I know it was a bad idea to steal it, but when Mizuki-sensei asked me to take it, I thought he might want it for himself. I  figured that he would alert the Hokage about this, so I decided to wait for Mizuki-sensei here, then lead him to the Hokage or any other ninja and tell them what he did," he explained quickly. 

Iruka was now looking at him with blatant shock on his face. "But-you-I-how- _what_?!"

Naruto grinned. "Hey now, I have to be somewhat smart! Pranks don't get planned on their own, do they?"

"I don't know what you're talking about over there, but it better be about how Naruto's going to give me that scroll," Mizuki interrupted loudly. Then, he adopted a thoughtful look on his face.

"You know, Naruto, Iruka is probably afraid that you have that scroll right now," he said.

Iruka had no idea what was going on, but then Naruto whispered into his ear again, barely moving his lips. "You have to pretend that I didn't just tell you everything I did, okay? Play along." Iruka nodded.

"What are you talking about, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked.

Mizuki laughed, but it was cruel and cold. "I will tell you the truth."

Iruka panicked, knowing what Mizuki was referring to. "Idiot! Don't do that!"

Naruto decided that he would let this play out, also knowing what Mizuki was alluding to. 

"After an incident twelve years ago," Mizuki began, "a rule was created. A rule that everyone, except for you, Naruto, knows about."

"Except...me?" Naruto faked a quiver into his voice. 

 _'Dammit! Naruto may have been smart enough to figure out Mizuki's want for the scroll, but he doesn't know about the Kyuubi yet!'_ Iruka cursed. "Stop it, Mizuki!" he yelled. He was ignored.

"The rule forbids anyone from revealing that you are actually the Demon Fox Spirit!" Mizuki revealed dramatically, a dark smirk on his face. 

But he did not get the reaction he was expecting, because Naruto sighed, then started to laugh.

"W-what?! You fool! Do you not know what the Demon Fox Spirit is?!" Mizuki yelled. 

"Of course I know  _who_  he is! I've known who he is for  _years_ ," Naruto laughed. 

Iruka and Mizuki stared at him in astonishment. Naruto laughed even harder.

"Y-your faces!" he giggled. 

Finally, he got himself under control, and cleared his throat. "I hope you know that the Hokage has been watching us this entire time. There's nowhere for you to run, Mizuki-sensei," he said with a grin.

(Back in the Hokage office, Sarutobi Hiruzen choked on the smoke from his pipe for the third time since he'd begun watching the confrontation between Naruto, Iruka, and Mizuki.  _'Naruto, it seems, has been playing the village for a long time. Including me,'_  he thought. Leaning back in his chair, he settled down to watch the rest of this surprising turn of events).

"You-you brat!" Mizuki raged. Grabbing one of the large shuriken from his back, he quickly threw it at the duo across from him. 

Before Iruka could even think about moving, Naruto flipped over his teacher, and blocked the weapon with a kunai knife.

"What?! How'd you-?!" 

"I told you,  _Mizuki-sensei_ , there's nowhere for you to run, and nothing you can do to get out of the hole you've dug for yourself." 

Iruka could only stare slack-jawed at his student.  _'There's no_ way _this is Naruto! But...how can it not be? Nobody else could have known about his attempt to steal the scroll. So, this_ is _the real Naruto, then. How...how could I have been so blind?'_

As if he could read his thoughts, Naruto turned to grin at his teacher. "Don't worry, Iruka-sensei, nobody has figured it out on their own yet."

 _'But, figure out_ what _?'_  Iruka thought almost desperately. But Naruto was not a mind reader, and had already turned back to his other teacher.

Well,  _ex_ -teacher.

Deciding to put on a show, Naruto brought his hands up, and created a cross with his index and middle fingers. "Shadow Clone jutsu!" he shouted. 

Hundreds upon hundreds of Naruto clones popped into existence around the trio.

"Alright, Mizuki-sensei, this is the end of the line for you!" the blond announced cheerfully. "Charge!"

And in a few seconds, it was over. 

When Naruto's clones disappeared, Iruka was able to see Mizuki knocked out on the forest floor.

_'This boy...he's gonna go far. I just know it. But right now...'_

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, you okay?" Naruto asked, sitting down in front of his teacher. 

"Yeah. Hey, Naruto? Close your eyes for a sec. I want to give you something."

"Okay!"

Iruka untied his hitai-ate, gently removed Naruto's goggles, and tied the hitai-ate around Naruto's forehead. "Alright, open your eyes."

Blinking slowly in the morning sunlight that was just starting to light up the sky, Naruto gently reached up to feel the forehead protector now wrapped around his head. 

"Congratulations on your graduation, Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka said softly with a smile.

Naruto beamed. 

* * *

A few hours later, after taking his registration photo and going on a mini adventure with Konohamaru, Naruto found himself lazying around in the living room of the house he shared with Sakura and Sasuke. 

"Well, I'm glad things turned out alright, in the end," Sakura sighed as she walked out of the kitchen, carrying three, cool glasses of water.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered, returning from the restroom. 

"Come on you guys! Have a little bit more faith in me!" Naruto whined. "Besides, tomorrow we'll get to see if our hard work paid off! Oh, I think we should walk in at different times to avoid suspicion as long as possible. Sakura, try to walk with Ino, if you can. I know she annoys you, but it's only for a little while, okay?"

Sakura handed her brothers a glass of water, then sat down on the couch next to Naruto. "You're right, she does annoy me. But if you think it'll help us, I'll do it."

"Great! We'll play it by ear tomorrow, so just react to everything else that happens around you, okay?"

He got two nods of agreement. "Alright! Well, I'm gonna head off to bed, so I'll see you guys tomorrow morning for breakfast, head off first and maybe play a prank or two, then meet you at the academy."

The next morning, Naruto found himself sitting at the same classroom table as his brother, but with a seat between them. They appeared to be ignoring each other, but were actually having a secret conversation with Sakura through the Speak seal.

{We've finally made it to the day that we've been waiting for for the past four years...it actually feels kinda surreal} Naruto said.

{No kidding. It's actually kind of relieving, you know?} Sasuke responded.

{Yeah. Hopefully, our hard work doesn't go to waste. I swear, if we don't end up on the same team, I'm gonna break character and march right up to the Hokage and demand that we be put together} Sakura muttered. 

{Aw, Sakura! Don't be such a pessimist! We'll be fine, I promise!} Naruto chirped. 

Sakura snorted. {Okay. Hey, I gotta cut the line, I'm approaching Ino's shop. I'll see you two in a few minutes.}

The line dropped out.

Not a second later, Shikamaru walked passed Naruto, but then did a double-take. "What the-? Why are you here? Today's meeting is for graduates only," he said.

Naruto straightened up, and pointed towards his hitai-ate. "Don't you see this headband?! I passed, and so as of today, I'm a ninja too!"

Shikamaru hummed.

"What can I say? I think it suits me perfectly!" Naruto said with a forced a smile. Then, he heard the sound of running feet. 

{Incoming!} he heard Sakura say over the Speak seal. 

A second later, the door to the classroom slammed open, and Naruto saw Sakura and Ino fighting each other, each trying to get through the door first. 

They tumbled in, and threw their arms out. 

"Goal!" they announced together. 

Ino turned to Sakura. "I win again!"

"My toe entered a centimeter faster! It's my win this time!" Sakura shot back. She turned to look at the rest of the class, searching for her brothers. She was trying very hard not to just smash her head into a brick wall, the embarrassment of having to act like an idiot threatening to overwhelm her. 

Her green eyes landed on Naruto and Sasuke, and saw the perfect opportunity to sit with them, but stopped at the look Naruto was giving her.  _Do something fan-girl-y_ , it seemed to say. She groaned inwardly, and gave her brother an apologetic look for what she was about to do.

She rushed over to their table, and knocked Naruto onto the floor with her hand, trying not to hurt him, but trying to look legitimate. 

"Get outta the way," she yelled out loud. 

{Sorry} she apologized sheepishly over the seal, activating it in a split second.

{It's okay. I was kind of expecting it} Naruto replied.

{This is ridiculous} Sasuke grumbled. 

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said sweetly. 

Sasuke just gave her a look, that to anyone else seemed cold in uninterested, but to Sakura it screamed _Oh my gosh why do we have to do this_.

She heard Naruto barely muffle a laugh. "Mind if I sit next to you?" she continued. 

Ino then walked over, and grabbed Sakura's arm. "Hey," she said, "I'm going to sit next to Sasuke!"

"First come, first served!" Sakura retorted. 

"I got in the classroom sooner!"

Then, the other girls in the class got involved. 

{Oh my gosh WHY?!} Sakura wailed.

Naruto was  _really_  trying not to laugh now. Sasuke had a better grip on his poker face. 

{Naruto, DO SOMETHING!} Sakura pleaded. 

The blond decided to save his sister, and jumped up onto the table in front of Sasuke in a crouch, staring his brother down. 

{Dobe, what are you doing?} Sasuke asked slowly, his brooding position the perfect cover to activate the Speak seal without moving too much.

{I'm...not really sure. I guess I didn't really think about it} Naruto said, unsure of his own actions. 

"Naruto, don't glare at Sasuke!" Sakura yelled, a faux angry look matching the expressions of the girls around her. He turned to look at her. 

{Seriously, Sakura, pick one! Do I help you or not?}

{I'm just playing my character!}

Naruto just barely managed to keep from rolling his eyes before turning back to his brother.

{You see what I have to deal with?}

{I can hear you!}

Sasuke sighed. 

Then, Naruto got pushed forward by a careless arm from the person at the table behind him. 

{Oh...my gosh. You guys...} Sakura breathed, her jaw dropping. 

For a second, neither Naruto or Sasuke knew how to react to their position. They both came to their senses at the same time and quickly wrenched their faces away from each other, not even having to fake their gagging. 

{WHAT THE HELL, NARUTO?}

{IT'S NOT MY FAULT! THE GUY AT THE TABLE IN FRONT OF US HIT ME WITH HIS ARM! YOU WANT TO STRANGLE SOMEONE?! STRANGLE HIM!} 

Breaking the link, so as to avoid suspicion, Sasuke decided to voice his thoughts. "Naruto! I'll kill you!"

But Naruto was feeling the rage of the girls, and turned around slowly to look at them. 

Sakura, still in character, cracked her knuckles with a deadly look on her face. "You. Are annoying."

A few minutes later, Sakura was sitting in between her brothers, and trying not to laugh.

{You guys! You should have seen your faces!}

{Sakura, please stop talking} Sasuke said monotonously.

{Pfft!}

{Sakura, why'd you have to hit me?} Naruto whined, gently massaging his cheeks.

{Sorry, Naruto. I had to stay in character} his sister apologized. 

Their private conversation was interrupted by Iruka, who had just joined them in the classroom. 

"As of today, you all have become full fledged ninja! However, you're still genin. The tough part's still to come! From here on, you'll be in a squad of three, and carry out your missions under your jounin teachers," he lectured. 

Ino spoke up from behind Sakura. "A squad of three, huh? I wonder who's going to be grouped with Sasuke...?" she taunted. 

{Just ignore her this time, Sakura} Naruto sighed. 

{Okay. But I reserve the right to punch her in the face the next time I see her} she replied sulkily. 

Iruka continued. "The groups have been determined so that the strength of the groups will be balanced. Now for the assignments!"

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all sat up a bit, and leaned forward in anticipation, their hearts beating wildly. 

They ignored the first six teams, until Iruka announced team seven. "Now then, next is Team Seven! Uzumaki Naruto!"

{Here we go.}

"Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke."

Nobody moved, and nobody breathed, watching the trio for their reaction. 

"YES!" Sakura cried, jumping out of her seat and pumping both of her fists into the air, her long hair bouncing behind her. 

Naruto almost fainted with happiness, and Sasuke relaxed his posture, letting his head fall back in relief. 

"WE DID IT!" Sakura yelled, a bright grin on her face. Without thinking, she grabbed Sasuke's right arm and Naruto's left, and began to shake them. "WE DID IT!"

Iruka and the rest of the students could only watch in confused shock. 

Then, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke seemed to come to their senses. 

Sakura quickly sat down and ducked her head, her hands folding themselves in her lap.

Sasuke adapted his look of cool indifference, interlocking his fingers in front of his face.

Naruto panicked, not knowing what to do, before settling a glare on Sasuke. 

But the damage had been done, and they were receiving odd looks.

{I am so sorry! I just reacted! I don't know what I was thinking} Sakura was frantically apologizing to her brothers through the Speak seal.

{Don't worry about it, Sakura. Naruto and I both reacted too. We're all at fault. It's a good thing, though, that you didn't say too much. I think we just confused them, we didn't actually reveal anything} Sasuke comforted. 

{Yeah, it's okay. Our team has already been chosen, so they can't change the groupings now. We've done it, you guys! We've done it!} Naruto cheered. 

During their conversation, Iruka had pulled himself together, and finished announcing the rest of the teams. "That's all for the group division."

{Let's see if I can sort of salvage our image.}

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto yelled. "Why does an exceptional student like me have to be in the same group as this guy?!" he shouted, pointing at his brother. 

Iruka looked at him suspiciously. "I thought you were happy to be in his group?"

"Sakura made a mistake, sensei! She was talking about me and her!"

Sakura stood up and glared at the blond. "The only mistake I made was grabbing you when I grabbed Sasuke-kun! Why would I want to be in the same group as you?!"

{Good job, Sakura!}

Iruka looked relieved for a second, before answering his blond student. "Sasuke has the best grades of the graduates. Naruto, you're at the bottom!" 

The other students began to laugh.

{Those idiots. I bet you could even beat Shikamaru in a shogi match, Naruto} Sakura grumbled. 

"Of course," Iruka continued, "this is how it is when trying to balance the strength within groups."

Sasuke then decided to add his own two cents. "Just don't get in my way, dobe."

Naruto pretended to shake with anger. "Hey, what did you say?!"

"You want to fight, dobe?"

"Knock it off, Naruto!" 

{Sorry, dobe.}

{Sorry, Naruto.}

{Guys. Stop. Apologizing. I know it's an act. It's okay.}

Iruka sighed. "I'll introduce you to your jounin teachers this afternoon. For now, you're dismissed!"

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had agreed to meet up at the Uchiha compound for lunch earlier that morning, so they snuck off, making sure that nobody followed them or saw them together.

Finally reaching the compound, they sighed, then looked at each other.

Grins slowly overtook each of their faces, until they were all laughing with joy.

"We did it!" they chorused. 

"Man! I can't believe we're on the same team!" Sakura breathed.

"I can! I'm a genius, remember?" Naruto joked. 

Sasuke just shook his head fondly, heading towards the kitchen. "I'm going to make lunch. We'd better hurry, so that we don't miss our jounin sensei."

"Right!"

But, as it turned out, they didn't have to worry about being late. 

"Three hours. We have been waiting here for  _three_.  _Hours_ ," Naruto deadpanned. "The other students have already left, and even Iruka-sensei is gone!"

He, Sakura, and Sasuke were sitting in a circle on the floor of their classroom, waiting for their jounin sensei to come get them. 

Sakura flopped onto her back and groaned. "What  _I_  don't get is why I have to keep wearing this stupid dress!" she griped. 

Naruto sighed. "I still have to wear this orange monstrosity, Sakura. Although...I think the color orange is starting to grow on me," he said, adopting a thoughtful look. 

"And remember," he added, "we still haven't passed our jounin sensei's test yet, so we can't reveal ourselves until after we do that."

Sasuke snorted. "Honestly, it'll probably be some kind of test that pits us against one another to see if we know the meaning of teamwork. Have you ever seen a two man genin team before?"

Naruto and Sakura shook their heads. 

"If that's the case, then we're fine! We've practiced maneuvers and strategies for three people before with, uh...," Naruto trailed off, searching for a way to name Kurama without actually saying his name.

"Tail-sensei!" he finally said.

[Are you serious? "Tail-sensei"?] Kurama asked incredulously.

[Sorry! I couldn't think of anything else!]

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, albeit somewhat sullenly. "And really? Orange has grown on you?"

"Definitely! I already have an outfit ready for when we do the big reveal!" Naruto said enthusiastically, much to the amusement of his siblings.

Suddenly, Naruto whipped his head towards the door.

"Someone's coming," he answered the unspoken question in a whisper. "Assume the positions!"

Sasuke immediately jumped into a seat and adopted, what Sakura had dubbed, his "brooding emo pose."

Sakura just leaned back onto the desk her brother had chosen and stared at him with a dreamy look on her face.

Naruto stepped onto the stool he had placed in front of the classroom door with an eraser in his hand, which he then carefully placed in between the slightly open door and its frame near the top.

It was a prank that he had played many times on his own siblings, whether with paint, water, tomato juice, and even mud.

{Alright, they're within earshot, time to play it up!} Naruto commanded.

Sakura walked forward from her place at Sasuke's desk, and placed her hands on her hips. "Man, you're asking for it!" she scolded her brother in mock anger.

Sasuke humphed. "A jounin wouldn't get caught in such a weak booby trap," he scoffed disdainfully.

"That's right. You're such an idiot, Naruto!" Sakura agreed.

A hand in a finger-less glove suddenly grasped the door and pulled it open, dropping the eraser onto gravity-defying silver hair. 

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke quickly assessed their jounin sensei without being noticed, (or so they thought), before Naruto began to laugh hysterically. 

"I got him, I got him!" he cried. 

{I can't believe he didn't catch that} Sasuke deadpanned.

{I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose} Naruto mused.

"I-I am so sorry sir!" Sakura apologized to their teacher while cutting off the link. "I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen to me!"

Their teacher slowly picked up the eraser, before thinking for a second. 

"Hm, how can I put this...?" he said leisurely. "As for my first impression of you guys?"

The trio waited with baited breath.

"Well, I hate you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

With that, he turned and walked back out the door.

There was silence in the classroom.

{Well, that could have gone a lot worse} Naruto said optimistically.

{Honestly, if he's like this now, imagine his face when we show him what we can really do} Sakura mused.

{I think I actually recognize him} Sasuke said, still staring at the door.

Naruto nodded. {Yeah, I do too. I read about him in the library. His name is Hatake Kakashi, otherwise known as the Copy Cat Ninja. He has a sharingan in his left eye, and he used to be an ANBU captain. He's also known for being late to everything.}

He got two, surprised looks.

{Yeah yeah, I know. I'm not supposed to know that. But can you blame me? It's hard for me to trust people when I don't know anything about them. Besides, I only looked at the jounin records so that I was prepared for whoever we got as our sensei. Promise} Naruto hastily explained himself.

Sakura sighed. "Well, we should probably go meet our sensei then, huh?" she said out loud, effectively deactivating the Speak seal. 

Sasuke and Naruto nodded, and started to walk towards the door.

"Wait!" 

They turned to look at their sister, who had a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Don't you want to see his face when we walk up the side of the building?"

She got two, identical smirks back. She then turned to open the classroom window.

"Sasuke, you should go first. You're probably the one he expects to be the most advanced. I'll go second, and Naruto will follow me. Make sure you close the window behind you, Naruto," she said while sliding the window open. 

Sasuke nodded, then stepped out onto the side of the academy.

Sakura waited a few moments, then followed her brother.

Naruto followed when he felt a warm sensation through the Panic seal. 

Carefully climbing out through the window, he looked up and only saw his sister still walking up the side of the building. He nodded to himself then closed the window.

When he made it up over the railing of the roof, he quickly glanced over at his sensei.

And had to smother his laughter.

A single, dark-colored eye had been widened in astonishment, staring at Naruto as he walked over to his siblings.

{We totally nailed that} he said.

Before his siblings could reply, he plopped down between them and turned to smile cheekily at his new sensei.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully. 

The trio watched as their sensei's face slowly went back to his lazy I-could-care-less expression. 

(They weren't fooled).

"Well, as surprising as that was, I've seen even crazier things happen. Let's first have you guys introduce yourselves," he finally said.

Sakura mentally snickered, but adopted an innocent look while asking, "Introduce ourselves...? What should we say?"

"Your likes, dislikes, your future dream, hobbies, things like that!" their new sensei suggested in a lazy tone while gesturing at nothing in particular. 

"Hey, before that, why don't you tell us about yourself first sensei?" Naruto whined. 

"Me? My name's Hatake Kakashi, and don't feel like telling you guys about my likes and dislikes."

"Eh?" Sakura and Naruto voiced disbelievingly. 

Kakashi continued. "I've never really thought about my future dream...as for my hobbies? I have many."

{In the end, all we know about him is his name, and whatever Naruto told us before, huh?} Sakura deadpanned. 

{Yeah} Sasuke grumbled.

"Next is you guys," their sensei interrupted unknowingly. "Let's start with you," he said as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto stared at his sensei for a moment, before giving him a wicked grin. 

"You already know my name, my likes and dislikes are my own, I won't know what my future dream will be until I fall asleep, and I have extremely boring hobbies!"

Before Kakashi could say anything, Sakura caught on to what Naruto was trying to do. 

"You already know my name, you probably already know my likes and dislikes, you most likely think I'm too much of an airhead to have any dreams, and any hobbies I have are probably extremely obvious."

By then, Sasuke had already thought of his introduction.

"You already know  _my_  name--everyone does--my likes and dislikes are none of your business, my dream is none of your business, and my hobbies are  _none of your business_."

The three siblings watched as Kakashi's only visible eye developed a twitch.

"Fine," he said coldly. "We'll do it your way. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like dogs and I hate cats, my dream is to read every Icha-Icha Paradise book in existence, and my hobby is to train."

"Nice to meet you, Kakashi-sensei! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I love my family and ramen, I hate people who want to harm my family, my dream is to become the best ninja I can be, and my hobby is to train and create seals!"

Kakashi didn't even have time to blink.

"It's nice to meet your acquaintance, Kakashi-sensei! I'm Haruno Sakura, I love my family and meditating, I hate having to act like a fan-girl, my dream is to become like my mother and help my family, and my hobby is to practice making poisons and healing poultices."

Kakashi's eye was beginning to widen again.

"I guess it's nice to meet you. Finally. Like I said, you already know who I am, I l-love my family and tomatoes, I hate having to pretend I don't care about anything, my dream is to be able to forever protect my family in battle, and my hobby is to train."

Silence.

{Did we reveal too much, you think?} Sakura asked nervously.

{Nah, we revealed just enough to give him a good shock} Naruto replied.

{Jeez, I think I shocked him the most} Sasuke said, amused at his sensei's expression.

Kakashi was staring at them, and it was obvious that his mouth was slightly open behind his mask. 

"Y-you guys...aren't what I expected," he finally said.

Naruto grinned. "So! What's our jounin test gonna be, sensei?"

"You know about that too, huh?" Kakashi muttered.

"Yup! Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be recognized as junior ninja! And so, every team will be tested by their jounin sensei, who will then decide whether or not to pass them! Right, sensei?" Naruto chirped.

Kakashi sighed. "You're right, Naruto. I guess I won't waste my time any longer. Meet me at Training Ground three tomorrow morning at five o'clock with all of your gear. Don't eat breakfast, or you'll throw up. Later," he grumbled to them before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stared at each other for a second, before bursting into laughter. 

"Wow, I can't believe we got him to lose his cool like that!" Sakura said through her giggles. 

Sasuke smirked. "I can. We just broke almost every rumor about ourselves in under five minutes, and he still doesn't know everything about us."

"Let's not be too hasty! We still have to pass his test," Naruto cautioned, but his warning was softened because of the mega-watt grin that was splitting his face. 

"Hey, Naruto, should we show up tomorrow in these clothes, or our real gear?" Sakura asked.

Naruto smirked. "Why don't we give our sensei another shock?"

He got two identical smirks back.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

"So, what time should we show up to meet Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

The morning after the trio had officially--sort of--become a team was supposed to start with them meeting their new jounin sensei at Training Ground 3--the  _irony_ \--at five o'clock  _in the damn morning_. However, due to the knowledge that Naruto had been able to uncover by, ahem,  _researching_ , they were at a loss as to what time they should  _actually_  show up.

Naruto had already done some more  _research_  to get an edge against their sensei when they inevitably had to take his test, and as a result of his snooping, was able to determine that they would be taking something Kakashi called the Bell Test. The newly formed genin team would have to attempt to take two bells from the jounin, and the one genin that failed to take a bell would be sent back to the academy.

_As if._

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura already had a plan of action, and they were excited to test it against a real ninja. 

(They were also excited to see their sensei's face when they busted out the "big guns," but that's a totally unrelated subject. Totally).

Although, they couldn't even  _begin_  to put their plan into action until their sensei decided to meet them, and they  _knew_  that it wouldn't be at five o'clock in the morning. 

Hence, their situation.

"I'm pretty sure he'll show up sometime closer to lunch, just so he can torment us with food if we fail the test, which I think he expects we will. But I can't wait to see his face when we pass," Sasuke answered with a smirk.

"Neither can I," Naruto agreed. "But he IS a jounin, and we can't underestimate him, even if he's underestimating us. No amount of training can make up for actual battle experience."

With a sigh, he stood up from his place on the living room floor of the trio's house, and padded over to the kitchen where he was going to make breakfast. Pulling out the ingredients for miso soup, he continued to converse with his siblings.

"I'm not sure what we can do about showing up at the same time as him, but-," he froze, his blue eyes widening.

"That's it!" he breathed.

"Naruto?"

"Dobe?"

Naruto didn't say anything, but a large grin lit up his face as he rushed back to his siblings.

"I almost forgot, but when we met Kakashi-sensei for the first time yesterday, I took a reading of his chakra signature and Marked it!" he whispered excitedly. 

Sakura gasped, a look of realization dawning on her face. "You can recognize him if you use your chakra pulse!" she said.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Then, you could keep track of him and determine where he is."

"Yup!" Naruto chirped happily. "Hold on a sec, let me try and find him!"

"I'll go make breakfast," Sakura offered, already heading towards the cooking area.

"Thanks! Now, let's see.." Naruto closed his eyes, and sent out a pulse of chakra at the speed of sound throughout the entire village.

Naruto had discovered his sensor-type ability before he'd met Sasuke. Originally, he'd found that sending out large waves of his chakra mixed with Kurama's created a sort of paralyzing effect on the common villagers. Whether or not it was because of the immense amount of chakra, or the demonic feeling it gave off that caused the villagers to freeze (it, unfortunately, didn't affect the higher level shinobi) when the chakra wave passed them, Naruto didn't know, but he used the technique often when trying to escape mobs of villagers. However, he'd also found that using it too often gave him crippling headaches, so he learned to use the technique only when there was no other way to escape a mob. 

Kurama had helped Naruto to refine the chakra wave by only having him use his own natural chakra. Naruto had found, that when it was only his chakra that was used in the wave, he could sense other people's chakra. And the best part? It didn't give him headaches, and if the chakra layer was thin enough, no other shinobi could detect the chakra. 

Naruto had continued to practice it until it'd became almost an unconscious act to send out a pulse of this type of chakra every few minutes. It never drained him because of the minimal nature of the technique, and because of his overly large chakra reserves that come from being an Uzumaki. 

Also, Naruto had found that by "Marking" a person when he studied their chakra signature, he could single out their presence by sending out a wave of chakra that specifically looked for their unique Mark. He could Mark a person by molding a small part of his own chakra into a unique shape, like an object, a symbol, or an animal, and "attaching" it to a person's chakra signature.

The best part of the Marking technique was that only Naruto could identify the shapes of his own chakra, and only he could deactivate them. If any other sensor were to find a person that had one of Naruto's Marks, they wouldn't be able to see or sense the Mark or try to disable it.

Naruto had already given Sakura and Sasuke their own Marks--a sakura blossom and a duck respectively---and just yesterday had Marked Kakashi with a dog, a nod to his time as Dog during his active involvement in the ANBU. 

Now, Naruto was modifying his chakra pulse to only search for the dog Mark in the village. 

" **Chakura**   **Sagasu**   **Jutsu:**   **Chakra**   **Myaku. Inu** ," he whispered*.

Normally, Naruto didn't have to say the name of his technique to help him focus, but when he was looking for a specific person, he had to. When he was just sending out pulses to keep aware of his surroundings, he didn't have to chant anything. 

"AH! I found him! And...he's still at his house?! That lazy bastard! Telling us to meet him at five in the damn morning when he's not even going to show up on time! Tch," Naruto grumbled indignantly, keeping track of Kakashi's position while opening his eyes. 

"Hn. We should wait here and only head out to Training Ground three when he does," Sasuke suggested.

"I agree," Sakura said from her place in the kitchen, stirring a pot of miso soup. "Should we go over the plan one last time, Naruto?"

"Nah, I think we got it. But we  _can_ , if you'd feel more comfortable?" Naruto replied, shooting her a questioning look. 

"Actually, I think we should, just to make sure. This  _is_  a jounin we're going up against," Sasuke cut in. 

Naruto nodded, and unsealed a map he had created of Training Ground 3 from one of the storage seals on his forearm, spreading it out in front of him.

"Alright, let's go over it one more time, then," he said.

* * *

Six hours later, at around eleven o'clock in the morning, Kakashi finally started to head to Training Ground 3 after wandering around the village and visiting the Memorial Stone.

Naruto, during the six hours he, Sakura, and Sasuke had had to wait for Kakashi to finally  _get his ass to the training ground_ , continued his  _research_ , and found that Kakashi's entire genin team was on that stone. Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin were the names that Naruto had found in the  _research_  regarding Kakashi's past genin team, and he had decided to keep these names a secret from his siblings because of Obito's family name. He didn't want Sasuke questioning Kakashi about a topic that was obviously a touchy subject for his sensei. 

But those thoughts were put aside when Naruto finally deemed it time to head on over to Training Ground 3 to meet his sensei.

"Sasuke, Sakura," he called.

He got two nods from his siblings before they all used the Body Flicker technique to appear before their sensei at the training ground.

And only their fast instincts, honed over years of training, saved each of them from being impaled between the eyes by a kunai.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke yelled.

All three of them were immediately on the defensive, finding that their attacker was none other than their lazy sensei. 

"You three are not my students, they don't wear what you're wearing right now. If you were trying to impersonate my students, then you obviously didn't do enough research. Who are you, what do you want, and what have you done with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura?" Kakashi growled, bringing up his hands close to his chest, ready to perform a jutsu at a moment's notice.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!" Naruto screamed, waving his hands in front of him frantically. 

"We ARE your students! Kakashi-sensei, I know that this is a surprise, but we're the real deal! Just...I know! You can ask us questions that only the real Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura would know the answers to! Please, you have to believe us!" Sakura pleaded. 

Kakashi's only visible eye narrowed. "Sasuke! What was the first introduction you gave me on the rooftop yesterday? Word for word, or I'll kill you where you stand," he barked, not relaxing in the slightest.

Sasuke looked panicked for a split second, then started to repeat his previous words. "You already know  _my_  name--everyone does--my likes and dislikes are none of your business, my dream is none of your business, and my hobbies are  _none of your business_."

There was a pause. 

"Sakura! What is the nickname you gave to your first friend?" Kakashi asked the kunoichi.

"What? Oh! Ino-pig," Sakura answered. 

Although, she knew that was a sort-of lie, because her first friends were Sasuke and Naruto, but nobody outside of them and Kurama knew that fact. 

Another pause. 

"Naruto! What did you steal from the Hokage tower and what did you learn from it?" Kakashi asked, his shoulders relaxing a minuscule amount.  

"Well, I  _allegedly_  stole The Scroll of Sealing and I  _might_  have learned the Shadow Clone jutsu," Naruto replied sheepishly.

There was one last, long pause, before Kakashi sighed and relaxed completely, putting away his weapons. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting a few  _genin_  leveled students to show up in front of me using the Body Flicker technique," he said dryly. "Though I suppose, from what I've seen from you guys so far, that assessment doesn't seem quite accurate."

Kakashi took a moment to closely study what his students were wearing.

Sasuke, from what Kakashi remembered from the morning before, hadn't really changed much, except for the fact that he now had a belt wrapped around his waist. It vaguely resembled a sword sheath, but Kakashi couldn't think of a reason as to why Sasuke would need an empty sword sheath.

Sakura's change was drastic. She no longer wore a red dress with shorts, and her hair was no longer long. Instead, she sported black short-shorts, a red razor-neck crop-top, short, black gloves, and her hitai-ate acted as a headband** for her short hair. Kakashi couldn't help but stare because the change was so different from her usual look. And it wasn't just her clothes that changed. Her entire being exuded confidence and a steady coolness that was  _nothing_  like the wildness of her Academy days. Her green eyes were clear, her stance was strong, and for the life of him Kakashi couldn't figure out what caused the change. Her kunai pouch was strapped to her right thigh, but a thinner pouch was strapped to her left leg. Kakashi had the sneaking suspicion that it was full of senbon. 

But Naruto was probably the biggest change, in Kakashi's opinion. Gone was the kill-me-orange jumpsuit, and just like his pink-haired teammate, his attitude was different. He was no longer wasting energy by mindlessly moving around, and he no longer had a forced grin stretching across his face. Rather, he was calm, his sharp blue eyes had a calculating look in them, and he had a lazy smile resting on his face. He was wearing an orange tank-top, a dark blue jacket with a hoodie, black shinobi pants, and black shinobi sandals. His hitai-ate was wrapped around his forehead. Kakashi had to wonder if Naruto was told off by his teammates for wearing a color that would get him killed, and he decided to retaliate by still wearing the bright color, but paired with black and blue. 

Naruto laughed. "You have no idea, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi sighed again, before turning to his raven-haired student. "Sorry about that," was all he said.

"Hn."

Kakashi nodded, before reaching into the pouch strapped to his leg, and pulling out two, silver bells and an alarm clock. "I guess we'll just start the test, then. Your job is to take these two bells from me within the time-limit I'm giving you. You'll have one hour-," here, he set the timer on the alarm clock, "-and whoever doesn't get a bell by the end of that hour goes back to the academy. If none of you get a bell, well, that's obvious. You are allowed to use any means necessary-"

He paused. "I get the feeling I'm gonna regret that," he mumbled to himself.

"Sensei?" Sakura inquired.

"Oh, right. You are allowed to use any means necessary, and I expect you to come at me with the intent to kill. Those are the parameters of this test. Begin on my signal," he spoke, tying the bells to the loops on his pants. "Ready? Go!"

Before Kakashi could blink, a blur of yellow flashed into his field of vision, and he saw a hand aiming towards the bells.

Startled, all Kakashi think of to do was use the Substitution*** jutsu with a log nearby.

However, when he touched back down to the ground, he didn't even have time to breathe because as soon as his foot made contact with the grass, a seal flashed into existence beneath him.

"Shit-!" was all Kakashi had time to say before he was thrown high up into the air by an explosion of wind power.

He quickly brought his hand up to perform the tiger seal to use the Body Flicker technique, but before he could even  _think_  about molding any chakra, a gloved fist was suddenly approaching his cheek in a flash of pink and red and  _invading his personal space_. Helpless to perform a jutsu quick enough without the use of his other eye (*cough cough*), he reached out and blocked the fist by shoving it away with his arm, while twisting his body away from the owner of the fist and facing towards the ground.

"What the hell-?!" he grunted. A blur of blue and black was all he saw before a gargantuan fireball was hurtling at high speeds  _towards his face-_

Kakashi began to curse under his breath through clenched teeth. Then, he spotted the log again. 

" **Kawarimi**   **no**   **Jutsu**!"

Once again, Kakashi switched places with the piece of wood.

And once again, as soon as Kakashi's foot hit the ground, a seal spread out beneath him.

But this time, Kakashi was ready, and he used the Body Flicker technique he had prepared while in the air to hide in a grove of trees nearby. 

As soon as he was sure no more surprises were going to come his way, he heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"What the hell was that?!" he muttered to himself, his eye narrowed and searching for his students. 

"Oh sensei~!" a voice sang softly behind him.

Kakashi's eye widened and he whirled around to face his opponent. 

A deceptively innocent looking Naruto was standing in front of his teacher with his hands clasped behind his back, and a cheerful smile on his face.

"So, how did you like the traps? It took me a while to figure out how set them without paper, but now I can create seals with just a thought, like my father used to!" Naruto rambled excitedly.

"Wait, you know who your father was?" Kakashi interrupted sharply.

"Of course I do! Anyone who has seen his face on the mountain and seen me and  _not_  made the connection is either blind--which is ironic, because how would they see me in the first place?--, stupid, in denial, or idiotically oblivious," Naruto chirped. 

Kakashi sweat-dropped. "I see." 

"Alright! Distraction phase complete! Moving on to stage two!"

"What-?"

And then the Naruto that had been conversing with Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

"A Shadow Clone. I should've known," Kakashi grumbled. 

"TIMMMMMBERRRRR!" a voice suddenly shouted from somewhere above him.

A thunderous crash followed the announcement, and the ground Kakashi was standing on burst into large chunks, completely destroyed.

Trees started to fall around him, and to dodge them Kakashi had to jump backwards to avoid being crushed to death. But apparently, his students had predicted this, because the jounin felt the air behind him shift, causing him to duck on instinct. 

And he'd ducked just in time too, because a gigantic  _battle-ax_  swung in an arc and sliced through the air where his head had just been.

"Dammit," he heard Sakura curse. "Almost had him!"

 _'Well, at least they're coming at me with the intent to kill,'_  Kakashi thought dryly.

" **Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu**!"

Kakashi's head whipped to his right where  _another_   fireball was being launched at his face. 

"What is this obsession you people have with trying to mutilate my face?!" Kakashi yelled as he Body Flickered out of the way. 

"It's nothing personal, sensei! Kur-Tail-sensei had a request, and, well, here we are!" Kakashi heard Naruto's voice say. 

"Who the hell is Tail-sensei?" he muttered. 

But he was now distracted, and wasn't anticipating another seal to spread across the ground beneath him  _again_. 

"Alright, sensei! It's almost time for Act Three, and then curtain!" Sakura yelled. 

Kakashi was still trying to figure out what the seal underneath him was supposed to do when Sasuke dropped out of the trees with a  _tanto sword_  raised above his head, poised to strike. 

With a battle cry, he swiftly brought down the sword's edge towards his teacher's head, intent on proving himself worthy to become a ninja.

Although, Kakashi wasn't a former ANBU captain for nothing.

Thus far, he had been caught unawares by the level of skill that the supposed  _genin_  possessed.

But now, he had gotten his bearings, and was ready to retaliate. 

(However, the time it'd taken him to gain back his ability to fight back was longer than he was willing to admit). (He would later swear it was because he hadn't expected  _children_  fresh out of the  _academy_  to be able to fight like high-leveled  _chuunin_ ). (But his co-workers would know he was just making excuses).

The first action Kakashi took in his plan to get his reven--*AHEM*--to defend the bells, was catching the blade being aimed at his face--"Again, what's with you and my face?!"--and kicking its owner away. He then  _launched_  the blade as far as he could in the opposite direction he had kicked Sasuke, and started to form multiple hand seals.

" **Doton:**   **Shinju**   **Zanshu**   **no**   **Jutsu**!" he shouted. Then he disappeared.

{Where'd he go?!} Naruto shouted through the Speak seal.

{I don't know, but that was definitely an Earth Release!} Sasuke responded, scanning the ground for any irregularities. 

{Guys, he's-! Shit!} Sakura cursed. 

{Sakura, what's wrong?!} Sasuke asked.

{He got me using the jutsu we were trying to figure out. I'm now trapped up to my neck in the ground} she forced out through gritted teeth in frustration.

{Can you get out of there yourself or do you want one of us to help?} Naruto asked seriously.

{I'll try to get out myself. Focus on Kakashi-sensei and get those bells} Sakura replied after a moment.

{Alright. Change of plans. Sasuke, get as high up into the trees as you can. Sakura, as soon as you get yourself out of there aim another chakra punch at the ground. I'll find him with my Chakra Pulse and see if I can face him head on to stall him} Naruto said quickly, already thinking of another plan and observing the battlefield a safe distance away through his pulses of chakra. 

{Roger} he got in response from his siblings.

" **Chakura**   **Sagasu**   **Jutsu:**   **Chakra**   **Myaku. Inu** ," Naruto muttered, closing his eyes.

_'There you are.'_

Snapping his eyes open, Naruto darted towards where he'd sensed his sensei's Mark.

{I've found him. Sasuke, he's about two trees to your right on the ground} Naruto reported. {Sakura, how's it going?} he added. 

{I've almost gotten enough chakra in my fists to break the ground if I just move them, but when I do, the damage is going to be extensive. I didn't think I'd be trapped this thoroughly} Sakura answered, slightly frustrated. 

{That's fine. Remember, that's technically what I wanted you to do any. Sasuke, I want you find your sword, and be ready to attack Kakashi-sensei on my signal. Sakura, as soon as you get enough chakra, don't even think about it, just destroy everything you can. But make sure you get  _yourself_  out of there first. Got it?}

{Roger!}

Without any further delay, Naruto launched himself at his teacher's exposed back while aiming a punch at the silver hair covered head. 

But before Naruto made contact, his teacher whirled around and caught the fist.

Naruto's reaction was immediate.

He swung his left foot forward in a round-house kick at the elbow of his sensei's arm. 

Kakashi immediately let go and jumped backwards. 

As soon as Naruto touched back down on the ground, he placed his palm flat on the earth and thought of the seal he wanted to use.

" **Fūinjutsu: Kibaku Fū******!" he shouted.

Black lines that looked like gibberish words suddenly appeared in a circle around Kakashi, who had just landed on the forest floor. 

His eye widened. "WHAT?"

Naruto brought his hands up into the snake hand sign, and activated the seal. " **KIBAKU**!"

In a deafening explosion of smoke, fire, and debris, Kakashi was sent flying high into the air.

{Naruto! I'm going to get out now!} Sakura announced over the Speak seal. 

{WAIT! LET KAKASHI LAND FIRST!} Naruto denied sharply.

{R-roger!}

{Aaaaaand...NOW SAKURA! DO IT NOW!} 

{Right!}

Another explosion of just debris this time rocked Training Ground 3 and sent a good number of trees to the ground.

And sent Kakashi flying again.

{SASUKE! NOW!} Naruto commanded.

{Right!}

A streak of blue and black with a flash of silver shot straight at Kakashi's prone body in the air.

And in a second, it was over. 

In almost slow motion, three pairs of eyes and one single one watched as two, tiny silver dots fell towards Naruto's waiting hand. A small, jingling sound interrupted the stunned silence that blanketed over the entire training ground. Naruto stared at the tiny bells that now sat in the palm of his hand uncomprehendingly with a blank expression on his face. 

He barely registered that his sensei was staring at the three genin with a stunned expression on his face.

He barely registered the alarm clock that went off somewhere on the other side of the training area.

But he did come back to his senses when Sakura, who had just come from her place in the hole Kakashi had put her in, let out a celebratory cry.

"WE DID IT!" she cried happily, small tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Sasuke smirked. "I had no doubt about it."

Naruto stared at his siblings, then launched himself at them, bringing the three of them into a tight hug. 

"We did it," he whispered.

"Yeah," Sasuke answered just as softly.

"We sure did," Sakura agreed. 

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Not quite. There are only two bells, remember?"

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura broke up their huddle, and turned to give their sensei the most deadpanned looks they could muster. 

"Really sensei?"

"Could you not see we were having a moment there?"

"Tch, old people have no manners these days."

The jounin floundered for a moment, before glaring at the three genin. "Well, it's true. Only two of you will be graduating from the academy, and one of you will be going back," he reiterated.

Naruto shook his head. 

"Sensei, do you seriously believe-,"

"-after that performance-,"

"-that we're just going to agree to that-,"

"-and send one of us back? You really-."

"-need to stop underestimating us-,"

"-and start acting like a proper sensei."

The Copy Ninja stared at the three siblings. "That...was incredibly creepy. Don't ever do that again."

"What ever-,"

"-do you mean-,"

"-Kakashi-sensei?"

Naruto and Sakura had innocent grins on their faces, and Sasuke had a smug smirk resting on his lips. 

Kakashi sighed. "Alright, I guess there's no fooling you three. Considering what I just saw and experienced, you guys knew what the point of this exercise was. But I'm curious about something. It seemed like you guys always knew what the others were going to do, but I never heard you speaking to each other. How were you three communicating?"

Sakura and Sasuke both looked at Naruto.

Kakashi found this suspicious, even after the little huddle he'd seen not two minutes ago. 

_'Aren't they supposed to hate Naruto? What the hell is going on here?'_

"Kakashi-sensei, there's a lot we have to tell you, but you have to properly accept us as your genin team first," Naruto said seriously.

"Fine. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, I, Hatake Kakashi hereby pass Team seven as an official genin team of Konohagakure," Kakashi said. "Satisfied?"

Naruto shared quick glances with Sakura and Sasuke, then turned back to his sensei and nodded. "Explaining the whole thing is going to take awhile, and some of the details are going to be extremely shocking for you, so we should probably head somewhere private."

"We'll head back to the compound," Sasuke decided.

"Yeah, that's probably the best place for this conversation," Naruto agreed.

"Wait, do you...live together?" Kakashi asked incredulously.

Sakura gave him a look. "Like Naruto said, sensei, it's a long story."

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were sitting on the couch in their home, blank faced as they stared at their sensei, waiting for his reaction to their explanation.

A bunch of different emotions were battling for dominance on Kakashi's face. 

Shock, anger, disgust, incredulity, sorrow, surprise, excitement, disbelief, and one other emotion that they couldn't quite describe.

"So...you're telling me...that you met each other when you all were six because of some unfortunate circumstances, decided to train with-with-with the _nine-tail demon fox_ , who you call  _Tail-sensei_ , you're all already at the level of high chuunin, Naruto knows who his parents are, Sakura has mastered Tsunade's chakra punch, Sasuke can perform  _jounin-level_  ninjutsu, Naruto can create his own seals, has carved seals  _into the skin_  of all three of you, Sakura is studying poisons and healing techniques, Sasuke has already unlocked his Sharingan, and  _all three of you_  have mastered a chakra-infused weapon?" Kakashi asked slightly hysterically.

"Oh, and let's not forget that we've been able to fool everyone into thinking we're people we're  _not_ , so that we'd end up on the same team," Naruto chirped. 

"Right...," Kakashi breathed. "It sounds so crazy that is  _has_  to be true. No fake story would be this elaborate and hard to believe," he muttered.

"Well, believe it or not, that's what's up, and you can't take back your acceptance of us as your first official genin team!" Sakura said happily.

Kakashi stared at the three of them, thinking hard.

_'Well, I can't deny that what they did during the Bell Test was incredible. They were working as well as, or maybe even better, than some of the jounin teams I've seen. They even manged to get the bells. I can't believe that they've managed to fool everyone in the village, even the Hokage, from what I can tell. What's more, they learned everything from the Kyuubi. That's not something I would have expected. Granted, I didn't expect any of this._

_'Well, looks like I'll actually have to try and teach them. It's not like they know everything there is to know about being a shinobi, and they'd better realize that before they get themselves killed in the field. After all, no amount of training compares to actual experience.'_

Kakashi sighed, then stood up and clapped his hands together. "Well, looks like I've got my work cut out for me. And I guess, since the Bell Test was kind of like an evaluation of your skill, we can start taking missions sooner than I'd originally planned."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura grinned excitedly.

"But, there's an important lesson I have to teach you guys first," Kakashi said seriously.

"What is it sensei?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi held up a finger. "In the world of ninja, those who break the rules are considered scum, but those who don't cherish their friends are worse than scum. I don't fully know or understand what kind of relationship you three have, but from what I can tell, I don't think this team will have a problem remembering that," he said, giving them an eye smile. 

Naruto sniffed. "He's...he's...kinda cool..."

Kakashi chuckled. "And with that, I think you guys are ready for your first mission."

Naruto and Sakura each pumped a fist into the air. 

"YEAH!"

Sasuke looked at his siblings with a fond expression on his face, then found that Kakashi was staring at him. 

"What?" he asked a bit defensively.

Kakashi had the decency to look a bit sheepish. "Ah, well, it's going to take me a while to get used to your "actual" personalities, I think," he said. 

Sasuke smirked. "Just wait until the other jounin sensei and their teams try to figure it out."

The jounin looked surprised. "You're not going to just outright tell them?"

Naruto spoke up this time. "Now what fun would that be? Oh! I just got an idea!" He turned to his siblings.

"Duck-butt, Sakura, you guys might not approve, but I think we should still keep up the acts," he started.

"WHAT?!" Sakura shrieked. 

Sasuke growled. "Dobe, we've finally graduated from the academy, and you  _still_  want to keep up the charade?"

"Wait, hear me out! If we keep our true-selves a secret, at least until the Chuunin Exams, the other teams won't be able to get a good read on us, and we'll have a better chance at beating our opponents!" Naruto reasoned. "If we successfully pull this off, we will have been "undercover" for a little under six  _years_!"

Kakashi startled at that. "I don't think I've ever heard of a successful undercover mission that lasted more than four years," he said. 

Naruto gestured to his sensei excitedly. "See?! We-"

"Alright  _fine_ , let's compromise. When we're in the village with anyone outside of our group, we'll keep up the act. But if we're on a mission, we drop it, okay?" Sakura said, more than a little exasperated. 

Naruto thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "I can also use my Chakra Pulse to keep track of how many people are around us, too."

"Oh yeah, Naruto," Kakashi interrupted, "can you explain to me what your Chakra Pulse is?"

"Sure! So, normally, when I use jutsu and seals and stuff, I'm calling on my chakra mixed with Kurama's, but if I were to send out a pulse of chakra like that, it would cause people who aren't used to killing intent, like villagers and civilians, to freeze, and people who are used to it, like shinobi, to be wary of me. However, just by using a thin, undetectable layer of my regular chakra, and sending it out in waves every five minutes, like a pulse, I can keep track of what or who's around the general vicinity," Naruto explained. 

Kakashi looked fascinated. "That's pretty useful. Normal shinobi rely on their instincts to detect killing intent and other people's chakra signatures."

"Oh! Speaking of chakra signatures, I can assign people a unique "Mark" to keep track of them specifically," Naruto added.

"Them...specifically?"

"Yes! For example, remember the day we met in the classroom? I placed a Mark on you so that I could keep track of you during the test. By adjusting my Chakra Pulse technique, I can search for just your Mark even in a crowd of people. The only downside to the Mark is that I can only search for one Marked person at a time," Naruto elaborated. 

"Interesting...," Kakashi muttered. "So, different people have different Marks? Is that it?"

"Yup! Sakura has a sakura blossom petal, Sasuke has a duck, and you have a dog," the blond answered. 

"A dog?"

Naruto froze. "Uh...well...I just thought...that...you seemed like a dog person?" he squeaked.

A single, dark eye stared at him suspiciously.

"Well, you're not wrong," Kakashi finally said. 

Sakura and Sasuke both gave identical looks to their brother that basically translated to  _We-told-you-so-and-you-just-barely-escaped-this-time-you'd-better-be-grateful_. 

"I have just one more question," Kakashi added.

Naruto motioned for him to speak. 

"During the test, you three seemed to know exactly what each other's actions were going to be, but I never heard or saw you guys speak to each other. Did you guys have a plan beforehand, or were you using signals or something?" he asked.

"I can explain that too," Naruto said. "A while ago, before the three of us started the academy, I wanted to have a way to communicate between us without other people noticing. I also wanted a way to communicate instantly over long distances without the use of birds or fast shinobi. The distance and time it takes for a message to get from one place to another could cause miscommunication between parties, and that can lead to disaster if it occurred between two or more of the Five Great Nations. So I designed a seal that can be used to communicate over long distances, and can be used for secret conversations. 

"To elaborate, if the seal were to be carved onto the skin of two people, only those two people could see and or hear each other talking. The more people you add with the same seal, the same result. However, the only downside is that if someone were to activate the seal, every person who has the seal would be able to hear what they say; conversations can't be individualized, so I can't give this idea to the Old Man yet," Naruto explained. 

"That's incredible," Kakashi said, a little awed. "Can the seal only be applied to someone's skin, or can it be applied to paper?"

"It can be applied anywhere, it's just easier to get to quickly if it's on a person's skin. And it can only be activated if someone touches it with their hand," Naruto answered.

"I see."

There was a small moment of silence as Kakashi took all of this in. Naruto spoke up again.

"Of course, if you think it'd be easier to work with us if you could hear our conversations, I'd be more than happy to give you the seal, Kakashi-sensei."

He had to immediately cover both Sakura and Sasuke's mouths as they opened them to protest. 

Kakashi laughed. "No, it's alright. Besides, I think those two wouldn't be too happy about it," he declined, gesturing to Sakura and Sasuke.

Naruto sighed and dropped his hands down back to his sides. "Alright, then."

Kakashi smiled. "Well, I don't have anymore pressing questions, so should we head to the academy to get your first mission assignment?"

"YES!" his three genin answered.

* * *

"For WEEKS!  _WEEKS_  I TELL YOU! We've been toiling around the village doing nothing but CHORES! Babysitting, pulling weeds, fixing random pieces of furniture, running errands for civilians, even entertaining a bunch of children! Well I. Have. HAD IT!"

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi stood back (read: cowered) and watched as Sakura raged and paced back-and-forth in the Uchiha compound. 

"W-well, Sakura, you're all still technically genin, so-," Kakashi started to say.

"I DON'T CARE! Missions of  _this_  caliber do not suit the level that we're at! Naruto and Sasuke and I have trained for YEARS trying to become strong enough to reach our goals, and we thought that once we became ninja, we would have the freedom to work towards achieving our dreams! BABYSITTING WAS NOT IN THE PLAN!" Sakura interrupted, glaring at her sensei with all the ire she had within her at the moment.

And it was enough to have Kakashi recoiling.

"S-Sakura, we have another mission today, and it's only around nine o'clock in the morning, so I'm sure we'll be able to at least ask the Hokage if we can get a better job, right, sensei?" Naruto said nervously. 

Kakashi opened his mouth to say that it was more likely than not that they would still be doing D-rank missions for a while, but the pleading look Naruto had on his face, and the glare he was still getting from Sakura made him change his mind.

"Well, I'm sure Lord Hokage will at least consider the idea if we phrase it right," he eventually said. 

Sakura's glare lessened somewhat. "Whatever, I guess I'm satisfied with at least that," she mumbled. 

"Great," Sasuke said encouragingly, "then let's get going to the academy and find out what our next mission is."

All four of them quickly used the Body Flicker technique to appear just outside of the academy, making sure no one else witnessed the three "genin" using a jutsu that's still supposed to be too difficult for them.

On their way to the mission assignment room, Naruto had pulled out and begun to study a scroll that he'd sealed into one of the storage seals on his forearm, muttering half completed thoughts under his breath.

"...but if I do that then...no that won't work...maybe?...no that doesn't fit within the seal's parameters...but then should I put the second part there?...no the seal would be too big..."

Kakashi listened to the muttering, unnoticed by the blond, fascinated by the amount of thought and organizing that Naruto put into creating a new seal. 

"Oi, dobe, we're here," Sasuke whispered.

"Oh, thanks."

Sakura was the one to push open the door to the assignment room. 

{Time to put on the masks} Naruto said through the Speak seal. 

{Are we  _finally_  going to be revealing ourselves today? I know we only briefly mentioned partially giving away a little bit to the Hokage and some other people to start some rumors but-} Sakura started to ask.

{We'll see how it goes} Naruto interrupted. 

A couple of days ago, even Naruto had begun to get frustrated with not being able to use his powers to their fullest extent, so Sasuke had brought up the idea of just leaving little clues here and there for the right people to notice to make it easier for others to finally figure them out. Official plans hadn't been made, so the idea was still on the table. 

"Ah, Team seven! Ready for your next mission are you?" the Hokage addressed them with a smile on his face.

"You know it Old Man!" Naruto cheered.

"Alright...let's see...oh! Here's an urgent one that was sent to us by Madame Shijimi, the Daimyo's wife. She wants someone to find her cat Tora," Sarutobi said, mentally making a note about the new clothing that the genin were wearing.

For a split second, a heavy blanket of killing intent filled the room, before it disappeared just as quickly. Kakashi noticed, as well as the three siblings, the hidden ANBU in the room tense and raise their guard.

{Sorry, it slipped just a little} Sakura apologized, hiding the action of activating the Speak seal by pretending to giggle into her fist. 

{Be more careful, Sakura} Naruto chided. 

{Yes, yes} Sakura sighed.

{Hn.}

"Alright, kids. Let's go and get this over with," Kakashi said lazily, eyeing Sakura discreetly. 

"Psh! I could find that stinking cat in no time!" Naruto bragged loudly.

Iruka, who had been watching the events before him quietly, just sighed in exasperation, also making note about his students' change in clothing style. 

But he knew better, now, than to underestimate his blond student. Especially after the Mizuki incident.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Sasuke smirked. "Dobe, I'll buy you a week's worth of ramen if you can find and bring back the cat yourself in the next ten seconds."

Apparently, Sasuke was taking matters into his own hands. 

"Are you serious?!" Naruto screeched, fixing a shocked gaze on his brother, surprised at both his break in character, and the sudden idea. 

"Ten."

"Oh my gosh you  _are_  serious! Hold on a sec!"

"Nine."

Naruto closed his eyes and screwed his face up in concentration.

"Eight."

"What's going on?!" Iruka demanded.

"Seven."

Naruto's eyes flew open. "I found the cat!" he shouted. 

"Six."

Then, he disappeared. 

"WHAT?!" Iruka cried, standing up abruptly in his chair and slamming his hands down on the table.

"Five."

There was silence in the room other than Sasuke's counting, and Sakura's sigh of resignation.

"Four."

"I guess now's a good time as any," the lone girl in the room sighed, just loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear. {We're going to be talking about impromptu plans later on, you two} she said to just her brothers.

"Three."

The other shinobi stationed in the room could only stare in bewilderment at the current events happening in front of them.

"Two."

A tense silence.

"One."

Naruto suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, panting and sweaty, but with a triumphant grin spread across his face, and a squirming cat in his hands. "I MADE IT!"

"Zero," Sasuke said. "Tch, guess I'll have to follow up on the deal, then," he sighed.

Naruto whirled around to face his brother. "Hey! You didn't expect me to be able to do it, did you?!" he accused, barely remembering to hand Tora to Madame Shijimi who had come in to whisk her cat away, leaving as promptly as she came after paying one of the mission keepers in the room.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sasuke deadpanned, looking away from the angry blond.

"You-!"

"Now, now," Kakashi tried to placate his students.

"Oi, you two," Sakura said quietly.

Naruto and Sasuke froze, hearing the undercurrent of steel in their sister's voice.

"Y-yes, Sakura, we're done now," they squeaked.

"Jeez, what am I going to do with you knuckle-heads," Sakura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

Then, the three of them noticed the unnatural silence hanging in the room.

"Oops," Naruto said ever-so eloquently. 

Sarutobi was the first to recover his composure, noticing that a certain silver-haired jounin was keeping a carefully constructed poker face. 

"Well, I suppose that since the Tora mission has, ah, just been completed, we can assign Team seven their next mission?" he suggested. He continued without waiting for a response. "Let's see, we have some choices here...an errand to the neighboring town...to baby-sit the chief Councilor's boy...helping with digging for potatoes, eh...?"

"NOOO!" Sakura interrupted, grasping her head with both of her hands. "NO! NO THANK YOU! I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE DEGRADING MISSIONS! GIVE US A BETTER ONE!"

Suddenly, she seemed to remember who she was talking to, because her face immediately went bright red, and she launched herself behind Sasuke, trying to hide from the bugged out eyes around her.

"Please...just kill me now," she whispered pathetically to her brother.

Sasuke barely restrained his laughter. "Sorry, no can do," he whispered back.

Sakura just let her head fall in-between her brother's shoulder blades with a whine.

 _'Well, she was bound to snap eventually, especially after the episode she had this morning,'_  Kakashi thought. 

Iruka was about to scold his former student, but paused.  _'Naruto has already shown that he's more competent than he's led us all to believe, if the little stunts he pulled just now and back with the Mizuki situation are anything to go by. Who's to say that Sakura and even Sasuke aren't the same? It's obvious, if not hard to believe, that all three of them are somehow connected on a deeper level than just teammates. At this point, I think it's safe for me to assume that I know absolutely_ nothing _about these three. But then, how much of my time with Naruto was a lie?'_

Luckily, he didn't have to say anything, because the Hokage took it upon himself to explain the ranking system of missions to the three genin.

However, even while Sarutobi was explaining how missions are assigned to the troublesome team, he was deep in thought.

_'Obviously, there are certain misconceptions about these three that I have yet to correct. Naruto isn't that little prankster anymore, or was he ever? Sakura isn't a die-hard fan-girl of the Uchiha boy; in fact, she seems more like a sister, of all things. And Sasuke isn't as cold and emotionally closed off as some of my ANBU have reported. If the little show that these three have been putting on since they walked into the room this morning has any merit to it, then just maybe, a C-rank mission wouldn't be hard for them to handle. To any untrained eye, they just seem like fools that think too highly of themselves, but I can tell._

_'These three aren't genin. They're more like chuunin. Or, dare I even think it, like low-level_ jounin _. I'll have to be careful and keep an eye on them. Especially Naruto, what with him being a jinchuuriki and all.'_

"...Nevertheless, you guys have just become genin, D-rank is about the best you can do...," he said, not really believing his own words. 

But then he realized that the three "genin" weren't listening to him at all.

"Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" he yelled. 

Kakashi turned to him and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I-I'm sorry," he apologized. 

"Sheesh Old Man! You're always lecturing me besides the face that we don't even see each other very often! But I'm no longer that little prankster that you think I am!" Naruto protested.

[Che, understatement of the year] Kurama grumbled from his place in Naruto's mind-scape.

[Oh, Kurama, you're back] Naruto said, surprised. 

A while back, a few days after the trio had met Kakashi, Naruto had figured out how to let Kurama roam free on his own as a Shadow clone henged as a fox with Kurama's conscience. For weeks, Naruto hadn't heard anything from Kurama, but could still use the fox's chakra. It was a plus on both sides; Kurama had some freedom, and Naruto could still call upon the fox's chakra. 

[Yeah, the time-limit on the clone ran out. But I plan on staying for a while. It seems like you guys are getting a new mission.]

[Yup. I'm in the middle of negotiating a better and harder mission for us.]

[Alright. Well, I'm gonna take a nap. I'll wake up if something exciting happens.]

[Lazy fox.]

[Idiot human.]

The Hokage's voice brought Naruto back to the present. "Alright, fine!"

The three siblings looked up in surprise.

"If you insist," Sarutobi continued, "I'll have you do a C-rank mission. You'll be bodyguards for someone."

"Really?! Who, who?!" Naruto asked, excited. 

"I'll introduce you now," Sarutobi said with a smirk. He raised his voice. "Could you please come in now?"

All of Team 7 turned to look at the door to the waiting room behind them, curious as to who they would be guarding on their first "real" mission.

A rough hand, a sake bottle, and the smell of a drunk were the first things that came out and through the doorway.

Naruto had to fight not to scrunch up his sensitive nose. 

"What's this?! It's just a bunch of darned squirts!" a voice slurred with alcohol said rudely. 

The man, seemingly middle-aged in peasant clothing with a travel pack on his back, a towel around his neck, and a piece of white rope wrapped his head, took a swig from the sake bottle in his hand. The glasses perched on his nose slid down his face a few centimeters as he stopped to observe the team.

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi each took their own observations of the man.

They were all in agreement, without knowing it, that the man seemed to be hiding something. It was obvious in the way he forced a relaxed stance, and the way his eyes seemed too aware of his surroundings for someone who was supposedly drunk. 

Naruto could attest to that. 

"Particularly you, the smallest one with the idiot face. Are you really a ninja?" the man asked skeptically. 

Naruto, realizing who the man was referring to, decided to act a little bit more mature, just this once, knowing that getting worked up would make the situation worse, even if he was just acting.

"Old Man, is that really how you're supposed to treat the people who're going to be protecting you and acting as your bodyguards for next few days?" he asked seriously. 

For a moment, the man seemed taken aback, before he scoffed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Whatever."

Then, his drunken state seemed to vanish as he took a last swig of his sake bottle and leaned forward to introduce himself. "I'm Tazuna, veteran bridge builder. You'll be risking life and limb in guarding me to the max until I return to my land and complete my bridge!"

 _'Yeah, he's definitely hiding something,'_  all of Team 7 thought. 

Kakashi sighed. "Alright team, go pack and meet up at the Entrance Gate in thirty minutes. Dismissed!"

"Yes, sir!"

And thirty minutes later, the group of five started to make their way towards the Land of the Waves with Naruto leading the way.

The blond suddenly turned to face the group. "Alright! We're finally off!" he cheered excitedly. 

"What're you so excited about?" Sakura asked in a (fake) annoyed tone. 

Naruto began to look around exaggeratedly. "Well you see, I've never been outside of the village before!"

Tazuna eyed the hyper ninja with a dubious look. "Hey, am I gonna be alright with this squirt?" he asked Kakashi while pointing at the still hyperactive Naruto.

Naruto paused, listening for his teacher's answer. 

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, I  _am_  a jounin, and I'll be watching him. There's no need to worry. Besides, it would do you good to not underestimate these three," he said, sending a private wink in his team's direction.

He got three, identical smirks back.

Tazuna remained oblivious to the exchange. 

Naruto was about to spout something about his "dream" to "become Hokage," when a pulse of his chakra picked up another presence hidden in the trees nearby. 

_'No...there are two people. Chuunin level, I'd say. They're either after Tazuna or us, but I'm almost certain that they're after Tazuna.'_

Instead of yelling some nonsense about his "dream," Naruto pouted and whirled around, stomping in what he assumed was the direction of the Land of the Waves. 

"Whatever Old Man! Let's just get going!" he said instead. 

He then activated the Speak seal. {Keep an eye out. I just got a ping on two chuunin-level shinobi nearby. I'm pretty sure they're after Tazuna, but be careful just in case. One of you, tell Kakashi as discreetly as you can} he said quickly.

{Roger} he got back. 

The next few minutes of walking were spent in silence, until Sakura activated the Speak seal again. 

{I've informed Kakashi about the two ninja you sensed, Naruto.}

{Good. For now, we'll just keep an eye out. But since we've probably got someone tailing us, we can't really drop our masks. We don't want them getting suspicious.}

Two groans of annoyance sounded over the link.

{Hey, I don't like it either. All we have to do is defeat them when they inevitably confront us, and we can probably drop the acts then, okay? Just a bit longer} Naruto encouraged.

{Fine} his siblings grumbled. 

{Sakura, why don't you come up with a little bit of a distraction? To keep the other ninja unsuspecting} Naruto suggested. 

{Sure, whatever.}

"Say, Tazuna-san?" Sakura asked.

"What is it?" the builder answered gruffly.

"Your country is "The Land of the Waves" isn't it?"

"What of it?"

Here, Sakura turned to her sensei. "Say, Kakashi-sensei, are there ninja in that land too?" she asked. 

Of course, she already knew the answer and explanation that Kakashi was going to give her because of Naruto's extensive knowledge, but for the sake of the distraction, she decided to let Kakashi speak. 

While Kakashi was giving his explanation to Sakura, Naruto was keeping tabs on the two ninja that were following them. He almost pulled out a kunai when he felt them pull ahead of the group and pause somewhere in the middle of the road. Then, the chakra signatures of the two shinobi suddenly took the form of some kind of blob. 

 _'Are you kidding me? They're disguising themselves as a puddle? When it hasn't rained in days? I pity the poor soul who trained them,'_  Naruto thought. 

"...the so-called Five Kage reign supreme over tens of thousands of ninja in each nation of the whole world," Kakashi finished. 

 _'Wow, I knew the Old Man was powerful, but to hear it in actual words in contrast to reading the information from books is really eye-opening,'_ Naruto mused. 

"Well, we don't really have to worry about not having someone that powerful with us on this mission. There are no battles in C-rank missions," Kakashi said reassuringly.

Naruto and Sasuke turned slightly to observe Tazuna's expression. 

Sakura didn't waste the opening that Kakashi had given her. "Then, there's no worry of getting into a scrape with foreign ninja!" she said cheerfully. 

"Of course not!" Kakashi replied, just as cheerfully.

Tazuna's expression became one of worry, if only slightly.

_'Gotcha.'_

"Good!" Naruto said. "Then let's keep going!"

As they continued down the path, they crossed over a small stream, and eventually reached a path that was as dry as a desert, and where Naruto had "seen" the two ninja become a puddle. 

A few seconds later, they passed it.

{Guys} Naruto warned without even glancing at the puddle.

{Yeah, I see it} Sasuke growled.

{Me too} Sakura replied.

{Kakashi-sensei is probably going to let himself "die" so that he can determine for certain who the target of these two chuunin are. We're going to have to protect Tazuna ourselves. Sasuke, you and I will be the main attack force. Sakura, you're better at defense. Keep your eyes open just in case they get passed us} Naruto ordered quickly.

{That's our strategist Naruto. Always coming up with a plan on the fly} Sakura said fondly.

{Heh, that's me!}

{Guys, focus} Sasuke said, a smile in his voice. 

Naruto felt the chakra of the two foreign ninja shift.

{Here they come. Leave the seal active if you can. On my mark} Naruto said. 

Chains with spikes suddenly seemed to come out of nowhere, (at least to Tazuna), and wrapped around Kakashi, restricting any movement from the jounin.

"The first one!" one of the ninja shouted.

{Hold...} Naruto warned.

"Kakashi" was suddenly ripped into pieces as the two foreign ninja pulled their chains taut.

When Naruto determined that Kakashi was really alright and  _not_  laying on the ground as minced meat, he signaled his siblings.

{NOW!}

Sasuke and Naruto each launched themselves at one of the shinobi while Sakura pulled out multiple senbon and firmly planted herself in front of Tazuna. "Stay back, Tazuna-san!" she called, her green eyes focused intently on her brothers and their opponents.

"W-what-?!" Tazuna gasped.

"Don't worry, Team seven will protect you!" she said firmly, reactivating the seal.

Meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto were engaged in combat with the two enemy ninja. 

Punches and kicks were exchanged, with the two brothers keeping the hostile ninja from reaching Tazuna each time they tried to make a break for it, until Naruto caught Sasuke's eyes. With an unspoken signal between them, they each grabbed their opponents by the necks, and slammed their heads together, knocking them out instantly. 

{Let's hurry and tie them to the tree over there, Kakashi-sensei should have enough information by now} Naruto instructed.

{Right} Sasuke grunted. 

{Good work, you two} Sakura said.

While Naruto and Sasuke were tying up their opponents, Kakashi made his reappearance. 

"You're finally back, you lazy sensei," Naruto grumbled without looking up from his task. 

"Well, I have to let you guys have some fun sometimes too, right?" Kakashi said while giving them an eye smile. 

Sasuke sighed. "Just make sure you actually tell us what you're planning instead of making us do all the work next time," he scolded.

Kakashi chuckled. "Right, right."

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura called. "They were after Tazuna-san, as you probably saw. Maybe we should question them, ask what they know?" she suggested.

"No, I think our resident bridge builder can answer that for us," Kakashi said dangerously as he approached the nervous alcoholic. 

"Tazuna-san?" Kakashi asked.

"W-what is it?" the bridge builder asked in an almost panicked tone.

"Why...are these ninja targeting you? They're known as the Demon Brothers from the Village Hidden in the Mist, and should be considered dangerous to ninja fresh out of the academy. You're lucky that my team isn't made up of ordinary genin. Now, care to tell us why you didn't register for a B-rank mission? Normally, when a mission is registered, if there is a threat of a ninja attack, the mission is immediately given a rank of B or higher. This mission was given to us as a C-rank. 

"Tazuna-san, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this, but for now, consider the mission on hold until you tell us why you lied on a mission request," Kakashi said.

"W-wait, you aren't going to cancel it? The mission that is," Tazuna asked.

"Of course he isn't," Naruto said in a  _that-should-be-obvious_  tone. "He's already told you that we're not an ordinary team of genin. In terms of strength, this team is ready for B-rank missions and maybe even A-rank missions if they're on the lower side of A. In terms of experience, however, I'm not quite as certain, but I'm sure we'll be able to complete this mission."

Tazuna stared at the three children that had accompanied him and protected him.

Gone were the naive and childish looking faces, and in their place were serious and focused looks that he'd only ever seen on older shinobi. 

"I'm waiting, Tazuna-san," Kakashi said.

Tazuna gritted his teeth, and finally relented. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise to see this mission out to the end."

"You're in no place to be making demands, Tazuna-san," Sasuke warned.

Tazuna remained quite for a few more moments, before he sighed. "Fine, but not here. It's better if I tell you somewhere I feel safer," he said.

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest, but a look from Kakashi silenced him.

"We agree to your terms, Tazuna-san," Kakashi relented.

A few minutes later found Team 7 and Tazuna in a boat being ferried across a large river in a blanket of mist towards the Land of the Waves.

The ride was spent in silence until Kakashi spoke up again. "Tazuna-san, my team and I will go no further than the bank unless you tell us what's really going on."

The bridge builder sighed. "I am being targeted by a terrifying man," he started. 

"A terrifying man?" Kakashi asked. "Who?"

"You guys have probably at least his name before," Tazuna continued. "A shipping magnate by the name of Gato."

"Wait, Gato..? As in, Gato of the Gato Company?!" Naruto asked. "One of the world's richest men?!"

Kakashi looked surprised. "Naruto, you know who he is?"

"Well, yeah! I read about him in a book from the village library. He's the chief executive of a shipping company," Naruto said for the benefit of his siblings.

"On the surface, he is," Tazuna agreed. "But underneath, he's into drug trafficking and deals in contraband using gangs and ninja. Moreover, he runs a despicable business, ruthlessly taking over nations and enterprises."

"That's terrible," Sakura said softly.

"It was about one year ago, when that man laid eyes on the Land of the Waves. He used his wealth and violence to enter this country, and before anyone knew it, he had taken complete control of the island's maritime transportation and shipping."

Naruto brought a hand to his chin, thinking. "Having a tight grip on the ocean, in an island nation like the Land of the Waves, means having control of finance, the government, the people, everything!" he said.

Tazuna nodded. "The kid's right. But Gato's biggest fear, is the completion of the bridge that has been under construction for a while now."

"So since you're the one overseeing the building of the bridge, you've become Gato's target, and a hindrance to his plans," Sakura hypothesized. 

Sasuke turned to his siblings. "Then, those two ninja from before were Gato's men?"

Naruto nodded.

"But what I don't understand," said Kakashi, "is that your opponent is a dangerous one, who will even use rouge ninja to get what he wants. Why did you hide that fact from us when you made your request?"

"It's probably because of Gato, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto answered. "With his monopoly over the island, the requests made to other nations from the Land of the Waves can't be too high ranked because they cost money, and I'm assuming, that even before Gato came along, that this country wasn't doing so well in terms of money."

"Got it in one, kid," Tazuna said. "So you understand. If you pull out now, I'll most likely be killed before I even make it home. But there's no need for concern!"

The team was surprised by Tazuna's sudden change in attitude.

"Should I die, my cute grandchild who's just turning eight will only cry his heart out!" Tazuna cried.

_'Oh.'_

"And...my daughter will only blame the Hidden Leaves ninja for the rest of her life and grieve in solitude!" the alcoholic continued. 

He got blank looks from the the trio and their sensei.

And then finally, Tazuna wrapped up his little monologue. "Oh, it's not your fault at all!"

Kakashi sighed. "Tazuna-san, didn't Naruto and I already tell you that we're going to finish this mission? Your attempt at guilt tripping us was completely unnecessary."

Tazuna froze, before a slight blush not related to the amount of sake he'd had over the duration of the trip spread across his face. 

The man who'd taken them across the lake suddenly announced their upcoming arrival. "Tazuna, it seems that up until this point, we haven't been noticed."

"Thanks," Tazuna replied.

A tunnel appeared out of the mist, and as the group came out the other side, the team got their first look at the Land of the Waves village. 

It was beautiful. Scattered on top of the water were various groups of trees, and quaint little houses perched on top of platforms made of sturdy wood. The mist had cleared away, letting the sunlight reflect off the water's surface, creating a glistening affect over the entire area.

"It's beautiful," Sakura whispered in awe.

"Many thanks, little lady," the ferry-man grinned.

Sakura grinned back, unaware of the glares that the man was receiving from her brothers.

When they finally reached a good place to dock, Tazuna and the ferry-man said their good-byes, and the group set off towards Tazuna's house. They seemed to walk in silence, but only to Tazuna and Kakashi.

{Those two, the Demon Brothers, you think they're working for Gato?} Sakura asked.

{Most definitely. When it gets back to Gato that they failed, he'll most likely send a higher-level ninja to take out Tazuna-san} Sasuke answered.

{Gato will probably send a high-level jounin to finish the job. When that time comes, we'll act as back-up to Kakashi-sensei. We'll only get in his way if he decides to use his sharingan eye, and we're better off defending Tazuna-san. I'll be able to keep an eye on whoever Gato sends after us with a Mark} Naruto said. 

{You're probably right. Still, it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Leaving Kakashi to fight the jounin himself} Sakura mumbled. 

{We have to. We might be at the level of high chuunin and maybe even low jounin, but we're definitely no match for a real jounin who's had  _years_  of battlefield experience} Sasuke rebuked. 

{Yeah, I know} Sakura sighed. 

Naruto, who'd been walking with his hands clasped behind his head, suddenly stopped and slowly lowered his hands to his sides. 

{Guys, there's a REALLY powerful ninja waiting for us up ahead. There's another ninja in the trees somewhere off to our right. They're aware of each other, I can tell, and they're most likely working together. Sasuke, signal Kakashi. Sakura, stay close to Tazuna. I'm going after the accomplice} Naruto said quickly.

{WAIT! Dobe, leave a clone here, otherwise the hostile jounin will get suspicious} Sasuke called.

{Good idea. Tell Kakashi-sensei to concentrate on his fight. I'll be able to handle the accomplice} Naruto replied. 

{Good luck, Naruto} Sakura said.

{Thanks.}

Naruto turned to Kakashi. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, Mother Nature is calling me. Can I...?" he trailed off, awkwardly gesturing towards the bushes off to the side of the road.

Kakashi sighed. "Sure, Naruto. Just be quick about it."

"Thanks, sensei!"

Naruto quickly bounded off towards the bushes, and when he was sure he was out of sight, brought his hands up in front of him.

" **Kage**   **Bunshin**   **no**   **Jutsu** ," he whispered. A solid clone of himself poofed into existence with a wide grin on its face.

"You know what to do?" Naruto asked. 

"Yup!" Clone Naruto chirped.

"Good. Keep them safe."

"You got it boss!"

Naruto sighed as he watched his clone loudly clamber back through the bushes towards his team.

_'Jeez, he sounded like Konohamaru.'_

Shaking his head, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind, searching for the accomplice of the hostile jounin. Naruto quickly found the chakra signature of the other ninja, masked his own signature, and used the Body Flicker technique to silently appear just behind the unknown ninja. 

 _'They're wearing the mask of the Village Hidden in the Mist's Tracking Unit. Are they here as back-up for the other jounin with a cover as a Tracker? Oh well, I should still take them out. They're_ _here with the hostile jounin, so I doubt they're enemies.'_

Remembering what Sakura had taught him about the nerve points of the human body, Naruto pulled a spare senbon from his kunai pouch, and sent it flying into the neck of the masked ninja. 

There was a moment of silence, before the masked ninja's body titled to the side and began to fall from the tree. Naruto jumped to catch the body, and silently landed on the forest floor. Before he could do anything else, a sudden blanket of fog began to obscure his vision. 

_'Shit. Must be the other jounin.'_

[Hey, Kurama. I'm not sure how powerful this masked ninja really is, and I don't want to risk fighting them if they wake up. Could you keep an eye on them?] Naruto asked the fox.

[Sure. Just create a clone with my conscience in it] Kurama agreed.

Without replying, Naruto brought his hands up once again. " **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Kurama Bunshin** ," he whispered. 

A Naruto clone with red, cat-like eyes and thicker whiskers appeared before him. 

"Maybe you should henge yourself into some random person?" Naruto suggested.

"Hm. Yeah, that's a good idea." 

"Alright, I'll leave you to it. I'm gonna go and find my team. Keep an eye on them, okay?"

Kurama nodded, and Naruto was off. While he ran, he activated the Speak seal.

{Sakura, Sasuke, status report.}

{There's an elite-level jounin here in combat with Kakashi-sensei} Sakura replied.

{Kakashi-sensei called him Momochi Zabuza, the Rogue Ninja of the Hidden Mist} Sasuke continued.

Naruto almost tripped over air. {ZABUZA MOMOCHI?!} he cried.

{Y-yeah. You know who he is?}

{Uh,  _yeah_! He's in the bingo book and a few other books in the restricted part of the village library! He used to be part of the ANBU Black Ops for the Hidden Mist and is known as "the silent killing" technique expert. A long time ago, when he was our age, the Mist Village, also known as the town of Blood Mist, had a horrifying requirement to become a ninja. Zabuza, as a part of the academy's graduation process, had to kill all of his classmates.}

Sasuke and Sakura both let out a strangled breath.

{He passed, and was labeled Zabuza the Demon} Naruto finished.

{And...Kakashi-sensei is fighting someone like that, right now...?} Sakura whispered, horrified. 

Naruto pushed himself to run faster. He couldn't use the Body Flicker technique because he couldn't see anything further than three feet in front of him, but he could sense that he was almost to where his siblings were guarding Tazuna.

{Hold on, I'm almost there. How's Kakashi doing right now?} he asked.

There was no reply.

{Guys? Guys! Sasuke! Sakura! Answer me! What's going on?! Are you okay?!} he yelled frantically.

There was another silence, and Naruto almost lost his mind, when-

{I-it's okay, Naruto. Zabuza just used a Water clone to try and kill Tazuna-san by getting inside our Manji formation, but Kakashi was able to use his sharingan to trap Zabuza after some confusion of more Water clones} Sasuke replied. 

Naruto almost collapsed from relief. After a few seconds, he finally reached the forest's edge, and could see the situation from where he was. Sasuke, Sakura, and his clone were quickly reforming the Manji formation around Tazuna who was sitting on the path, a stunned expression on his face. Adopting the position of his Shadow clone, he quickly used the Substitution jutsu and dispelled his clone. 

He briefly sorted through the memories of the past three minutes, and refocused on the situation in front of him. 

{Alright, I'm back} he told his siblings.

{How'd you...? Oh, the Substitution jutsu} Sasuke deduced. 

{Yeah. The other ninja has been subdued, but for how long I'm not sure. I left Kurama to keep an eye on them.}

{Them? There was more than one?} Sakura asked.

{No, I'm just not sure whether they're a boy or a girl.}

{I see.}

"It's over, Zabuza," Kakashi said, pulling the trio from their silent conversation. 

Naruto watched Zabuza's body language. 

{There's something wrong...} he muttered to his siblings. {Wait...that's not the real Zabuza!}

{What?!}

{How can you be sure?!}

Naruto didn't reply, sending out a pulse of chakra and searching for the real Zabuza. He found him quickly approaching Kakashi's exposed back. 

"Shit!" he cursed out loud.

He darted forward in a blur of yellow and blue, launching himself at the real Zabuza.

Not even thinking, he unsealed his naginata and swung the weapon horizontal up in front of his face, blocking Zabuza's sword from slicing Kakashi in half. 

A large  _CLANG_  resonated from where Zabuza's sword made contact with Naruto's naginata.  

"Naruto!" Kakashi exclaimed, surprised. 

"Yo, sensei! Thought you could use a little help!" Naruto said through gritted teeth, straining against Zabuza's strength. 

"Tch, brat!" Zabuza growled, springing back a few feet, not having expected the genin to get involved in the fight. 

Naruto smirked and expertly twirled his naginata around. "Didn't expect these genin to be so capable, did you?" he taunted. 

Zabuza narrowed his eyes, before he started to laugh. "Well, I certainly didn't expect the  _children_  to know how to fight, that's for sure."

Naruto's smirk grew. "Then, you wouldn't mind going a few rounds with me, would you?"

"Wha-Naruto!" Kakashi protested. 

"Kakashi-sensei, just trust me, I have a plan. Plus," here, Naruto lowered his voice, "I know that any longer, and your sharingan eye is going to give you chakra exhaustion. Please, Sasuke and Sakura and I have been working on plans and strategies for years. We'll be fine. If it's the three of us against Zabuza, we'll manage."

Kakashi stared at his student, before sighing and pulling his hitai-ate back down over his sharingan eye. "I'll protect Tazuna-san, but as soon as I see any evidence of you three struggling, I'm jumping right back in there, understood?"

Naruto smiled.

{Sakura, Sasuke, plan Beta.}

{Seriously?! Kakashi-sensei is letting us fight?!} Sakura asked, shocked.

{Yeah. And if we go all out, I'm sure we'll be able to defeat Zabuza} Naruto said, confident. 

{But wasn't Sasuke saying earlier how much at a disadvantage we're at in terms of experience?}

Sasuke grinned. {Yeah, but I almost forgot just how powerful we really are, considering the types of missions we've been doing recently and our past. It's a good thing we continued to train ourselves} he said.

Naruto grinned back. {Guys, undo the weight seals on your ankles and the restriction seals. We're gonna need every tool we have to defeat this guy.}

{Roger!}

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura each formed the rat hand seal.

" **KAIJO**!" they yelled. 

Zabuza tensed, but nothing seemed to happen. Even Kakashi was confused. 

"What, did your little trick fail?" Zabuza mocked.

Sasuke crouched down, and  _launched_  himself forward. 

The Demon of the Hidden Mist didn't even have time to blink before he found himself flying up into the air.

"W-wha-!?" he gasped.

He looked up, and a blur of red and pink suddenly appeared not even a foot above him.

"SHANNARŌ!" it yelled.

Zabuza suddenly found himself several feet  _in_  the ground with what felt like several broken bones. 

"What the hell-?!" he coughed. 

" **RASENGAN**!" he heard the blond brat yell.  

The next thing he knew, a bright blue sphere of what seemed like pure chakra was being aimed at his chest, and then everything went black. 

It was over in a grand total of fifteen seconds. There was silence in the forest as Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Tazuna waited for Naruto to reappear from the hole Sakura had created with Zabuza's body. When Naruto climbed out, grumbling under his breath, they all let out a sigh of relief. 

Kakashi was the first to speak. "Naruto, where'd you learn about the Rasengan? You do realize that it's an original jutsu created by-"

"By my father, I know," Naruto interrupted. "I, um, actually found a note left for me by him explaining the Rasengan technique."

Kakashi gasped. "Where'd you find such a note?!"

Naruto laughed. "It's a funny story actually-"

Tazuna cleared his throat. "As much as I would be interested in hearing about such a funny story, I'm kind of in a hurry."

Kakashi startled. "Right. Well, first, let me check Zabuza's condition, and then we'll decide what to do from there," he said a bit sheepishly. 

As Kakashi walked forward to drag Zabuza out of the hole in the ground, Sasuke and Sakura turned to Naruto. 

"Are you sure it was a good idea to reveal that much of our skill?" Sakura asked.

"Well it's not like we really had a choice. We had to take Zabuza by surprise, otherwise we wouldn't have defeated him so quickly. The only reason we were able to knock him out that fast was because he wasn't expecting us to be able to be that skilled," Naruto replied, shrugging his shoulders. "But this is exactly why I suggested we should keep our skills hidden from the other teams. If us hiding our skills enabled us to defeat a  _Rouge jounin-level Ninja_ , just think what we'll be able to do when the Chuunin Exams come around."

Sasuke nodded. "I can kind of see that now."

"Me too," Sakura agreed. 

The three of them turned to Tazuna.

"So, how'd we do-,"

"-in protecting you-,"

"-Tazuna-san?"

Tazuna stared at the trio for a moment, not sure what to make of them.

"Just ignore them, Tazuna-san. They're trying to unnerve you," Kakashi called from his place next to Zabuza.

The bridge builder sighed, then chuckled. "Well, you three certainly aren't, what'd you call them earlier? Genin? Whatever it was, I'm grateful for your protection and look forward to working with you for the next few days."

The trio grinned at him. Naruto turned to his sensei.

"Is he dead, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked.

Kakashi closed his eye and sighed. "I'm not sure how to answer that."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura looked puzzled at that, before realization dawned on their faces.

"Sensei," Sakura started, "if you're worried about telling us that we killed him, don't be."

The trio shared a look.

Sasuke stepped forward. "Actually, if we did kill Zabuza, it wouldn't be the first time that we've killed someone," he admitted. 

Kakashi's head whipped towards them. "What?!"

"The three of us have been training together since we were all six years old, and training can only go so far if we don't have anyone to test our strategies against. When we turned ten, Tail-sensei suggested that we try killing an enemy ninja to gain experience in killing an actual person using our planned strategies," Naruto explained quickly. "At first, the three of us were against it, but Tail-sensei convinced us that in order to become ninja, we had to understand what it was like to kill someone."

Sakura continued. "With Naruto using his chakra pulses, we were able to detect enemy ninja before they reached the village. If they were chuunin level and lower, the three of us would go and take them out. If they were jounin level, we would anonymously tip off people who could take care of the threat."

Sasuke took over next. "And Naruto could also detect if there was a foreign chakra signature in the village. Due to the fact that he sends out regular pulses of chakra every few minutes, he's got the entire village memorized; the people and the landscape. If he found something that he didn't recognize, we would check it out and do some reconnaissance. If the the foreign object or person was a threat to the village, we would kill or destroy it."

Naruto wrapped up the explanation. "We didn't tell you this before because we weren't sure what you would say, or if you'd tell the Hokage, seeing as we didn't technically have permission to do it. And we've only been doing this for two years, so we haven't had the chance to kill too many enemy ninja. Sakura has killed three, Sasuke has killed five, and I've killed six. Well, seven, if Zabuza is actually dead."

Silence.

Kakashi let out a shaky breath. "Well, I should probably stop being so surprised when you guys tell me stuff like this, but it's hard when you put on your acts," he said. "But, since you guys are apparently familiar with killing, I guess there's no point in sugar-coating it. Yes, Zabuza is dead."

Naruto sighed and turned to hug his siblings. "We did it," he whispered. "We survived."

Sakura choked out a laugh, the lack of adrenaline making her a little shaky. "Yeah, we did."

Sasuke gave them a small grin. "That's the greatest victory of all."

They stayed that way for a little longer, before Naruto pulled away. "Oh, I almost forgot. Give me a sec."

He closed his eyes just for show.

[Kurama, did they wake up?]

[Nope. You guys done over there?]

[Yeah. Could you do me a favor and bring them here?]

[Sure.]

[Thanks.]

Naruto opened his eyes. "Tail-sensei is going to bring the accomplice here."

Kakashi startled at this. "Zabuza had an accomplice with him?"

"Yeah. Well, I assume they're Zabuza's accomplice. When I sensed Zabuza earlier, I also sensed someone else. They weren't attacking each other, but they were at least aware of each other, I could tell. They were wearing a mask that I assume belongs to the Hidden Mist's Tracking Unit, but they didn't seem to be there to kill Zabuza, so I decided to take them out before they could interfere," Naruto replied. "Wait, I thought I told Sasuke to tell you about them?"

Sasuke had the decency to look a bit sheepish. "Zabuza kind of appeared almost right after you left, so I didn't get the chance."

Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.

Tazuna looked at Naruto in surprise. "But you were with us the entire time! When did you..?"

Kakashi's eye widened in realization. "You switched out with a clone when "Mother Nature" called you," he said. Then, he glared at his students. "You three should've cleared it with me first. Who knows what could've happened if the accomplice had been more powerful than you thought?"

All three genin looked down in shame. "Sorry, sensei."

He sighed. "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it now. In any case, since you  _did_  bring them down, good job, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," Kakashi said as he smiled at them. 

The trio looked up in surprise, before they grinned back.

"Jeez, all this sappiness is gonna make me hurl. Kit, here's your masked ninja. I'm going back to sleep."

Naruto turned to where the clone that had Kurama's conscience in it had dropped down beside him and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, you lazy fox."

Kurama grinned, turned to Kakashi, and gave a mock bow. "Nice to meet your acquaintance, Kakashi of the Sharingan. I'm Tail-sensei, and you'd better take good care of these three kits, or we're gonna have words," he warned before poofing out of existence. 

Naruto sighed and crouched down next to the masked ninja that had been dropped at his feet.

"Well, we should probably head to Tazuna-san's house now, right?" he asked rhetorically, picking up the ninja and slinging them over his shoulder.

Kakashi walked over to them with a scroll in his hand. "Yes, we should. I've sealed Zabuza's sword and body in this scroll, so we can give it to the Village Hidden in the Mist at a later date. For now," he turned to Tazuna, "let's get you home."

Tazuna nodded, and turned in the direction of his house. "Don't worry, you guys can rest when we get to my place," he said. 

* * *

When the group finally reached Tazuna's house, all they wanted to do was sleep. But they had work to do.

"Zabuza is dead, but his accomplice is still alive. We need to figure out what to do with them," Kakashi said, sitting down on the floor of the guest room and facing his students.

Tazuna's daughter had been kind enough to guide them to an empty guest room to rest and leave them water and snacks.

"Shouldn't we turn them in with Zabuza back to the Hidden Mist village?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded. "So far, that seems like the best option."

Naruto brought a hand to his chin. "But shouldn't we figure out who they are first? We could question them about Gato, too."

Kakashi turned to his blond student. "Of course, we aren't going to hand them over right away. We have to complete our mission first."

Sasuke suddenly turned to his brother. "Naruto, how wide is your range for Chakra Pulse?"

Startled at the change in subject, Naruto's eyes widened. "Uh, I guess a bit bigger than the entirety of Konoha? I haven't tested it in a while."

Kakashi's jaw dropped.

Sasuke nodded. "Do you think you could search for Gato's hideout?"

"What are you thinking, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, curious, trying to get over his shock at how large Naruto's sensor range was, considering that Konoha is about 30 kilometers (about 18.6 miles) in length*****.

Sasuke looked down at his hands. "Well, considering that Gato has had to hire ninja to do his dirty work, I don't think he actually has any ninja within his company. If all four of us raid Gato's hideout, we might actually be able to take him out and finish this mission early," he said.

"Are you serious?!"

All four ninja jumped and whirled towards the door of the room.

Standing in the door frame, a kid around the age of five was staring at them with an incredulous look on his face.

"You'll die! Gato is too powerful! You're all just wasting your time!" he yelled. 

Before any of them could reply, the kid turned around and ran from the room.

"W-who was that?" Naruto asked.

Tazuna entered the room then and sighed.

"That was my grandson, Inari," he said sadly. He entered the room and sat down. "Let me tell you a story..."

And Tazuna told them the story of Kaiza and how he'd become a Hero and Inari's adoptive father.

And how Gato had publicly executed him.

Team 7 sat in silence as they let the story sink in. 

"Then we'll prove it," Naruto said, breaking the silence.

"W-what?" Tazuna spluttered.

"We'll prove to him, to Inari, that there are heroes in this world," Naruto said firmly, looking Tazuna in the eye.

Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement. Kakashi stared at his students, before sighing and giving them an eye smile.

"Alright. Let's see what we can do about Gato and his hideout," he said.

"YES! Then, let me meditate for a few minutes. It might take me some time to locate Gato because I don't know his exact location, but I'm sure I'll find him," Naruto said determinedly. 

Without delay, he pulled his legs into the lotus position and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and slightly bowing his head. 

Sasuke stood and stretched, yawning. "I guess I'll take a quick nap while he searches. What about you, Sakura?" he asked.

The girl thought about it, before shaking her head. "Nah, I'll help Tsunami-san in the kitchen," she decided.

Sasuke shrugged. "Okay, see you later."

Sakura nodded, standing up to head to the kitchen. "Come on, Tazuna-san. Let's leave them here."

Tazuna sighed and followed the pink-haired girl out of the room.

Kakashi watched them go, then turned to Sasuke. "Where'd you get the idea to physically raid Gato?"

Sasuke sat down with his back to his brother and leaned his head against Naruto's shoulder.

"Hm...I guess I got the idea from a prank Naruto pulled while we were first trying out our masks," he said. 

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "Really? I'm sure that's a story worth telling," he said in a tone that clearly exposed his curiosity.

Sasuke turned his head towards his teacher and smirked. "Maybe another time, sensei. I think Naruto would want to tell that particular story."

Kakashi laughed. "Alright, I'll hold back for now, but I  _do_  want to learn more about you three, considering how much of the information I got in your files was apparently very wrong," he said.

It was Sasuke's turn to laugh. "Well, if that's the case, then Naruto, Sakura and I played our roles very well," he said smugly.

Kakashi was about to reply, but Naruto suddenly straightened up, dislodging his brother and sending him sprawling on the floor.

"Oi, dobe!"

"Sorry not sorry, but I found him!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"That quickly?" Kakashi asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but I should probably explain it when Sakura is in the room with us. I don't want to have to say it twice," Naruto said, reaching up to activate the Speak seal.

{Sakura, I've found where Gato's hideout is! Come back to the room so I can explain the plan} Naruto said.

{Alright, I'm on my way} Sakura replied.

Naruto deactivated the seal and turned to his sensei. "She's on her way."

Not two seconds later, the door to the room slammed open, and Sakura rushed to sit next to her brothers. "Okay, I'm here. Start talking," she demanded.

Not even fazed, Naruto turned to his team. "Gato's hideout is a huge upside down cone-shaped building with a small belly suspended off the ground, with thick wires branching off certain floors into the forest around it in a clearing surrounded by trees about three miles west of here. There are approximately one-hundred guards total in the building, give-or-take about twenty. I think there were six top floors and three sub floors as the belly. The sub floors were empty, and each floor had about seventeen guards each.

"I'm not completely certain about the numbers, but that's the ballpark. If we split up into pairs, one team can start clearing the first floor, and the other team can start on the sixth floor. The two teams will work their way towards each other and meet on the third or fourth floor, depending on who works faster. I don't think there were any prisoners in the building, so we don't have to worry about rescuing anyone. Also, I don't know how each of you may feel, but in my opinion, it would be quicker to not have to worry about keeping our opponents alive. If we want this to be as efficient and as fast as possible, I think we should use deadly force."

There was a tense silence as Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi thought about Naruto's words.

Eventually, Naruto spoke up again. "If we're going to put this plan into action, we need to do it no later than tomorrow. Gato will know by then that Zabuza wasn't able to compete his mission and send his men to finish Tazuna-san off. We need to move before then," he warned.

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto is right. We need to move now. This evening is probably the best time to attack. They won't be expecting an attack from us, and we can use the cover of night to our advantage. And assuming that Naruto's information is right, we won't have to worry about strong shinobi." He turned to Naruto. "I also agree that we should use deadly force, but we should keep Gato alive so we can question him and bring down his company once and for all. I'm not so naive as to believe that the base we're going to attack is his only one," he finished. 

Sasuke and Sakura nodded. "We're ready," they said together.

Naruto grinned without humor. "Then let's get this son of a bitch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry about the abrupt ending, but it's like, 11:40 at night where I am, and I kind of promised some people that'd I'd have chapter two up yesterday. That didn't work out, so I'm posting it today! Yay! Anyways, there were a few things in this chapter that I starred, and here they are!
> 
> *Chakura Sagasu Jutsu: Chakra Myaku. Inu = Chakra Pulse Jutsu: Chakra Search. Dog (I made this up)
> 
> **Just imagine this as her style when she cuts her hair during the Canon Chuunin Exams
> 
> ***Should I use "Substitution jutsu" as the English translation, or "Replacement Jutsu"?
> 
> ****Fūinjutsu: Kibaku Fū = Sealing Technique: Explosive Seal (Kibaku = Explode) (I made this up)
> 
> *****This information was taken from multiple sites and averaged. This is probably not true, but I did what I could.
> 
> I know I didn't finish the Land of the Waves Arc, but I felt that if I did finish it, this chapter would end up being too long. So, here you go! See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you bastards thought I was dead, didn't you?! Well guESS WHAT?! I LIVE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
> 
> So. Moving on. 
> 
> There were a LOT of things I probably said I'd do in the comments when I answered them, like, MONTHS ago, and I don't really remember them all, so if I missed anything, let me know. I'll put this reminder in the end notes too, cause I know some people don't read the beginning notes, and cause you might forget. 
> 
> And now! Without further ado!
> 
> Ladies and gentlemen! Naruto does not belong to me! (But I REALLY wish it did). Please be aware of the Warnings for this chapter, as there are mentions of violence, blood, and some canon typical ninja violence shit!
> 
> Please take the time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the long awaited third installment of The Deception of Dai-nana-han!

* * *

{Naruto, Sakura and I are in position} Sasuke whispered into the Speak seal.

{Alright. Kakashi-sensei and I are also ready} Naruto replied just as quietly. {Let's move.}

They didn't have to whisper when using the seal, but it felt wrong somehow to speak normally in the atmosphere the impromptu mission was inducing. 

Naruto nodded his head at Kakashi, and silently climbed through the window on the top floor of Gato's hideout, the silver-haired jounin following suit. The blond imagined his siblings were doing the same on the bottom floor of the ridiculously-shaped building.

It was pitch black inside and outside; the team carrying out their attack in the cover of night. Naruto had made sure the majority of the men inside the hideout were either asleep or pointlessly wandering the halls in a half-hearted attempt at patrolling before they dared to infiltrate. Kakashi had been paired with him, and his siblings each other, therefore evenly splitting the team in terms of ability and specialty. Sasuke could fight in close combat with taijutsu and ninjutsu, while Sakura could watch his back from a distance with her senbon and destructive chakra punches. 

Kakashi was paired with Naruto because while the blond was extremely capable at fighting, he was going to be monitoring the movements of every individual in the building, and focusing more on providing live surveillance. Even now, as he and Kakashi crept across the office-like room, he was sending out chakra pulses every few seconds to keep an "eye" on the movements in the hideout. 

{So far so good} he reported. He turned to his sensei. {Is the seal working?}

Kakashi nodded. {I can hear you loud and clear} he replied. 

Naruto, for the mission, had given the jounin a slip of paper with the Speak seal on it so that he could communicate with his students. The silver-haired man had placed it underneath his mask at the base of throat, similar to the place where Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had theirs. 

{Good} Naruto murmured. {Sasuke, Sakura, report.}

{We're good on our end. We're gonna start taking down Gato's men where we are, and we'll let you know when we think we've cleared the floor. When you give us the all clear, we'll move on to the second floor} Sakura replied. 

{Perfect. We'll start clearing our floor too.} Naruto gestured for Kakashi to exit the room ahead of him. Kakashi nodded, and pulled a kunai from the pouch on his thigh, holding it in front of his chest. He held up three fingers, bringing them down one by one in a countdown. 

_3_

Naruto readied himself.

_2_

Kakashi tensed.

_1_

The jounin quickly but silently threw open the door and dashed down the hallway, slicing open the necks of the three henchmen idly wandering around. They went down with a wet choking noise that neither of the Konoha ninja flinched at. Naruto kept up with his sensei, continuing to send out pulses of chakra. When Kakashi glanced at him, he held up four fingers and pointed at one of the doors to the right of where they were standing. 

A minute later, he held up five fingers and pointed to another door. 

A few seconds after that, he held up two fingers and pointed to the last door.

{Sasuke, Sakura, we've finished clearing our floor. Report} Naruto breathed into the Seal.

Sasuke was the one to answer. {I think we've got them all. Can you check?}

{Yeah, give me a sec.} Naruto concentrated for a beat. {You've got 'em. Move on to the second floor.}

{Copy.}

Naruto turned back to Kakashi, and pointed down. The jounin nodded, and they both ran to the nearest window, climbed out, moved down one floor, then reentered the building through another window. They proceeded to silently take out every single goon on that floor too. After checking in with the other team, Naruto and Kakashi repeated their process twice more, before they met up with Sasuke and Sakura on the third floor, the sibling duo having already taken care of the guards. 

{That's every person I can sense, but we haven't run into Gato!}  Naruto said through gritted teeth, frustration coming off of him in waves. 

Kakashi sighed softly. {He must have found out about what we were going to do somehow, and escaped.}

{But that's impossible!} Sakura cried out, just as vexed as Naruto. {We were the only ones who could have known!}

Sasuke frowned, and shook his head slowly. {I don't think that Gato knew that we were coming. I think he just got lucky} he said.

Naruto froze. {As in, he-probably-wasn't-in-the-hideout-because-he-was-somewhere-else, lucky?} he whispered. 

Sasuke nodded. 

"GATO!" Naruto roared. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, and counted backwards from ten. When he felt just a bit less like he was going to murder anything that moved—besides his siblings and his sensei, of course—he opened his eyes, and summoned four Shadow clones. He pointed to them one by one.

"North. East. South. West.  _Find Gato_ , and don't you dare dispel until you do," he hissed. The clones quickly nodded, and disappeared faster than Naruto could blink. The blond turned to look out of a window, and cursed softly. Dawn was breaking, and they had to leave. "This mission was a partial success, but we can't celebrate yet," he said to his team, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.

Kakashi hummed in agreement, a storm in his visible eye. "We have to keep an eye out for Gato, and make sure he doesn't get away again," he said, a grim look on his face. "For now, let's head back to Tazuna-san's house."

He got three terse nods in response.

* * *

The four of them took their time heading back towards their temporary shelter, each lost in their own thoughts, while Kakashi took the time to remove the temporary Speak seal from his mask. They had almost made it back, less than a mile away, when Naruto froze mid-step and his spine went rigid. His eyes were blown wide as the memories from one of his clones filled his mind. Sasuke and Sakura immediately turned their attention to him. 

"What's going on, Naruto?" Sasuke asked seriously. Kakashi stopped and inclined his head to show he was listening.

A growl, low and dangerous, slid past Naruto's twisting lips. His eyes took on a dangerous glint, and he practically snarled his answer. "That  _bastard_  is inside the Old Man's house, and has Inari and Tsunami-san hostage. He's waiting for some of his men to retrieve Tazuna-san from the bridge."

Sakura's eyes widened, then narrowed into slits. "That man is going to  _pay_ ," she whispered, her hand reaching down to hover next to her senbon pouch.

Naruto's head snapped to turn towards his sensei. "Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired man nodded. "Sasuke, go with Sakura to the bridge, and protect Tazuna-san. Get there before Gato's men do, no matter what. Naruto, you're with me. We're going to rescue Tazuna-san's family," he ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument. 

Naruto's responding grin was downright feral. "Sasuke, Sakura.  _Go_."

His siblings were gone in an instant, having released their weight seals to allow them to travel faster than any jounin in Konoha.

"Kakashi-sensei, I left a special seal inside of the room we were in yesterday. I've been experimenting with it in secret for a while now, and not even Sasuke and Sakura know about it," Naruto said quickly.

"What does it do?"

Naruto bit his thumb and slammed his hand down on the ground. A circular seal within a square spread out underneath his and Kakashi's feet, and a blinding light swallowed them. When it faded, they were standing inside of the room Tazuna had let the team use, and on top of another seal. 

Naruto laughed, but it was cold and dark. "It works," he said simply.

Kakashi was having a hard time picking his jaw up off the floor. "Naruto...did you just—?!"

"Yes, I did."

" _How_ did—?!"

"Rescue now, questions later, sensei." Naruto sent out a chakra pulse, locating Inari, Tsunami, and three other signatures. 

"Right," Kakashi muttered. He cleared his throat. "Where are they?"  
  
Naruto crept his way to the door of the room. "They're being held in the kitchen, I'm going to try to—"

{Naruto!} Sasuke cut him off though the Speak seal. {We barely made it to Tazuna before Gato's men showed up, but that accomplice of Zabuza's is here too! I think they somehow managed to escape from the seal we put on him!}

Naruto swore loudly, causing Kakashi to look at him in alarm. The blond had totally forgotten about the person with the mask. Before they had raided Gato's hideout, Naruto had placed the masked ninja under a sloppy seal to try and keep him contained. Unfortunately, since he'd had to rush the placing of the seal, it seemed the masked ninja was able to break it and escape.  {Try to hold them off! I'm sending Kakashi to you!} Naruto responded. 

{Right!}

Naruto turned to his sensei. "Zabuza's accomplice showed up on the bridge a few minutes after Sasuke and Sakura made it there, along with some of Gato's men. I can handle the problem here, can you..?" he trailed off, not completely comfortable giving his sensei orders.

But Kakashi just nodded. "Got it. And Naruto, don't worry about it. Right now, we're teammates, not teacher and student, you three are too advanced to be treated as just students."

The blond beamed, despite the situation they were in. "Thanks, Kakashi- _sensei_ ," he said cheekily. The man just shook his head, before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto cracked his knuckles, before chuckling softly underneath his breath. "Alright," he whispered, "time to finally take down this bastard asshole."

Silently, he crept into the hall, and stuck to the wall until he could peek into the kitchen without being seen. He heard Inari yelling at the men to let his mother go, struggling in his captor's grip with everything he had.

[Kurama] Naruto called out.

[I'm here.]

[I'm gonna need your help. Can you create a small distraction? I trust you a bit more than my regular Shadow clones.]

[Just a bit more?] Kurama deadpanned.

Naruto rolled his eyes. [Just do it.]

[Fine, fine.]

" **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Kurama Bunshin** ," Naruto whispered, bringing his fingers together. The clone next to him grinned, before sauntering into the kitchen, their hands in the pockets of the blue jacket.

"Yo!" Kurama greeted, lazily waving a hand in the air, grinning at the dumbstruck people in the room. Naruto silently face-palmed. 

_'Whatever. A distraction's a distraction.'_

Pulling out three senbon tipped with a paralyzing agent—courtesy of Sakura—he took careful aim, and threw. His aim was straight and true, each senbon sinking into the necks of Gato and his two goons. They dropped to the floor instantly, Sakura's paralyzing serum potent to anyone unaccustomed to it. (Naruto and Sasuke were close to immune to the dangerous liquid). (It was better not to ask why).

Tsunami let out a short scream, and Inari stared, shocked at the sudden turn of events. Naruto took that as his cue to reveal himself. Sauntering into the kitchen like Kurama had, he nodded at the bodies glaring up at him from the floor, satisfied with himself. Naruto knocked each of them out with a pinch to a nerve in their necks, then turned to the clone with Kurama's mind controlling it. "Thanks, you overgrown cat," he grinned.

Kurama snorted, and disappeared, not bothering to deign that comment with a response. Knowing that his tenant was probably going to take a nap, he turned to Inari and his mother. 

"You're safe now."

Tsunami covered her mouth with her hand, sinking to the floor sobbing in relief. "Thank you," she whispered like a mantra. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Naruto placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Stepping back, he raised an eyebrow at Inari. "See? Heroes do exist."

Inari just continued to stare, before he violently shook his head. He glared at the blond. "That was probably just some fluke! Gato is going to become angrier and stronger than he already is! The strong always win, and the weak always lose! That's how it goes," the boy shouted, tears streaming down his face.

Naruto sighed, and sat down on the floor. "Inari, listen to me."

Inari shook his head, glaring at the ground and balling his hands into fists.

Naruto felt his patience begin to fray. He lunged forward and grabbed Inari's shoulders in a tight grip. "No, you  _listen to me_."

Inari's eyes snapped up to meet Naruto's, startled.

"It does no one any good if you always believe that the weak will lose. Sure, a weak person may lose to a strong person, but if the weak person trains and becomes strong, then what happens? One person can't always win, but the same goes the other way. One person can't always lose," Naruto said firmly, never breaking eye contact with Inari. He could see the inner turmoil swirling in the younger boy's dark eyes.

Naruto grinned widely. "You're already on the way to becoming someone strong, Inari. I heard the way you were trying to protect your mom. I don't think a weak person would have done that, do you?"

Inari stilled underneath Naruto's hands, before his bottom lip started to tremble, and tears began to fall from his eyes. Naruto gently pulled him into a hug. "It's alright. Let it all out. You were very brave, but even heroes are allowed to cry."

A few moments after Inari's sobs turned into quiet sniffles, Naruto pulled away from the small boy and placed his hands on Inari's thin shoulders. "Now, I'm going to talk to Gato for a second, so you see to your mother and take care of her, okay?" Naruto said gently, trying to keep from spitting Gato's name like a curse. 

Inari nodded, and walked over to where Tsunami was attempting to take deep breaths to calm herself down. 

Cracking his knuckles, Naruto grabbed the unconscious Gato by the collar of his disgustingly expensive suit, and dragged him out and around to the back of the house, out of ear-shot of the two civilians inside. After dropping Gato onto the ground none too gently, Naruto unsealed a smelling salt from one of the storage seals on his waist and placed it underneath Gato's nose. 

Not even a second later, Gato's eyes flew open and he gagged slightly from the smell of the salt. Before the fat man could say anything, Naruto grabbed his already rumpled suit collar again and slammed the slimy business man against the wall of the house. 

The blond leaned in close to the son of a bitch, letting his eyes narrow and his pupils become slits. 

[Kurama, mind adding a bit?] Naruto asked the fox. 

The beast didn't reply, but Naruto felt the heat of Kurama's chakra fill his eyes, and he knew the irises of his eyes were now a dark, burning red. He twisted his lips, exposing his sharpened canines, and snarled into Gato's face. 

Naruto felt a vicious satisfaction at seeing the fear flash across Gato's face before the man, unsuccessfully, tried to slide his confident look back into place. 

"Now you listen to me, you sick, slimy, son of a bitch," Naruto growled lowly. "You are a  _bastard_  of the highest degree, and if there was an 'Asshole of the Year' award, you would win it a thousand times over."

He leaned in even closer so that his mouth was next to Gato's ear. Naruto felt the man trembling and smirked cruelly. 

 **"You have no idea how much pain I could cause you,"**  Naruto whispered, Kurama's voice mixing with his,  **"the amount of agony I could inflict, the sheer amount of suffering I could make you endure, the torment I could put you through."**

Gato's breath hitched. 

Naruto pulled back so he could stare Gato down. 

"But you know what? I'm not going to, because I'm going to give you one last chance. I'm not letting you go, oh no. I'm going to hand you off to the property authorities of this place, and you are not going to fight or lay a hand on anybody else, because if you do-," Naruto paused for effect. 

**"Then I will tear you apart, joint by muscle by bone by limb. And I will keep you alive through it all, just to make you feel every. Last. Second of it.**

"Do you understand?" Naruto asked softly, not losing the hard steel or edge in his voice. 

Gato whimpered, then promptly fainted. 

Naruto sighed.

* * *

When Naruto was finally able to leave Inari and Tsunami after promising them that Gato and his men would remain knocked out, he rushed toward the bridge. 

{Sasuke, Sakura, what's the situation at the bridge?} he asked, activating the Speak seal as he ran.

Silence was his response. Naruto's anxiety and worry immediately spiked. 

{Guys?! What's going on?!}

Still no reply. 

Naruto swore colorfully under his breath.

[Kurama! You're my eyes for the next few seconds!]

[Right!]

Naruto closed his eyes, trusting Kurama to make sure he didn't run into anything, and sent out a chakra pulse as far as he could in all directions. He quickly felt his siblings' familiar chakra signatures, and then he found Kakashi's soon after. Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. The masked ninja's signature was also there on the bridge, but there was something wrong with it. 

Naruto gasped, his eyes snapping open.  _'No way...'_

{Sasuke! Sakura! What happened to the masked ninja?! And you'd better answer this time, I know you can hear me!} Naruto practically yelled into the seal.

{Naruto, the masked ninja tried to kill Sasuke using some kind of special ice technique, but I was able to destroy it with a chakra punch} Sakura answered, her voice steady but slightly breathy. {The masked ninja asked us about Zabuza...and we had to say that we killed him.}

{You what?!} Naruto asked incredulously. {Do you realize how stupid—?!}

{We know, Naruto!} Sasuke replied this time.

There was a tense silence.

{Are you both okay?} Naruto asked softly.

{Yeah, we're fine. But after we told the ninja that we killed Zabuza, they went kind of crazy, and...Kakashi-sensei had to strike them down} Sasuke sighed. {They're dying right now, and we can't do anything for them. Kakashi-sensei accidentally nicked their heart, and they asked us to bury them next to Zabuza.}

Naruto finally approached the bridge, and quickly made his way to his team, analyzing the scene in less than a few seconds. The masked ninja was no longer masked, their face visible with a serene expression spread across their features. Naruto distantly thought they were really pretty. Kakashi was standing close by, keeping an eye on the downed ninja. He briefly acknowledged his third student.

Naruto nodded back, then turned to his siblings. Sakura looked no worse for wear, but Sasuke had light scratches littering his face and arms. "So?" the Uchiha asked to no one in particular. "What now?"

Naruto thought for a moment, then turned to Zabuza's accomplice. There was no doubt that they had been with the rogue ninja. The blond knelt down and made eye contact with the ninja. "What's your name?" he asked softly.

"Haku," came the short reply.

"Haku, I promise that you will be buried next to Zabuza." Naruto ignored the glare that Kakashi was aiming at him. "I assume that he was your precious one?"

Haku's eyes widened. "How do you..?"

Naruto chuckled. "I have some of my own precious ones that I need to protect. We were each trying to protect what we love, huh?"

Haku stared at Naruto, but then closed their eyes, a small smile tugging at their lips. "Yeah...I'm glad I got to meet you, even though you killed Zabuza. I'm sure you'll be able to protect your precious ones, even though I failed," Haku whispered, no malice in their voice. 

Naruto smiled sadly. "You didn't fail. You're still protecting his heart, even as you lay here dying. I wish you peace, Haku."

Haku sighed, then became still. Naruto closed his eyes in respect. Then, stepping away from the body, Naruto turned to his team who had watched the entire interaction silently.

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it, knowing better than to speak out against Naruto's promise. He would do all he could to honor his student's words and promise to Haku, even if it meant not properly cleansing Zabuza's body of all the information that it held. His team's trust in him meant more than any rule ever could.

Sasuke walked forward and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "We could seal both Zabuza and Haku within storage seals that would require a drop of blood from each of us to open. That way, no random person could steal any information from their bodies, and they could be buried next to each other." Sasuke looked down to stare at Haku. "Haku said a lot during our fight, and I think the three of us would have been able to understand their reason for fighting a lot better than anyone else."

Sakura nodded, coming up to stand on Naruto's other side. "I agree with Sasuke. Our pasts were similar in that fact that Zabuza saved Haku. We all saved one other, and would do anything to keep our found family alive. Haku understood that sentiment, and I think we owe it to the two of them to make sure they are laid to rest together."

The three genin turned to look at their sensei. Kakashi held their gazes for a moment, before he sighed and shrugged. "I was against it at first, but Sasuke's idea about the seals changed my mind. I won't interfere," he said.

Naruto sighed in relief. "Thanks, sensei." 

Before any of them could move, a thunderous war cry sounded from the entrance to the bridge. Naruto swore. "It's the rest of Gato's men! I forgot to keep my chakra pulses going and didn't even notice them!" he yelled in frustration. He growled, long and low. "You three, guard Haku. I'll take care of the—"

Another war cry, but from  _behind_  Gato's men, interrupted Naruto. The blond paused, then sent out a chakra pulse. His eyes widened in disbelief. "That's..no  _way_ ," he breathed. He turned to his team in shock. "It's Inari...and the rest of the villagers."

"WHAT?!" 

Sure enough, when Gato's men turned around, they found they were being attacked by angry villagers with pitchforks, shovels, rakes, and any other household item that could be used as a weapon. And when the dust settled, Gato's men were on the ground, with the Land of the Waves' villagers standing above them with their weapons raised in victory. Naruto, though, only had eyes for the small figure leading the mob. 

"Inari?!" 

The small brunet made eye contact with Naruto, lit up with a smile, and launched himself at the blond. Naruto caught Inari more out of reflex than anything. 

"Naruto-nii-chan!"

"N-nii-chan?!" Naruto spluttered. 

Inari nodded enthusiastically, pushing himself off of Naruto. "Yeah!" He then looked at the ground, and shyly scuffled his feet. "You inspired me to be brave, so I rounded up the villagers, and told them that they could be heroes and to do something about Gato's men. We made it just in time, huh?"

Naruto stared dumbly before Sakura smacked the back of his head. "Ouch! Sakura!" Naruto glared at the kunoichi, before turning to Inari. Naruto beamed. "You sure did! I'm really proud of you, Inari."

The younger boy practically glowed with pride. 

Naruto turned to his team. "Alright, let's start wrapping this mission up."

And so, a few hours later, Team 7 was finally ready to head back to Konoha. Their last day was spent coming up with the seals for Zabuza and Haku then burying them, rounding up the last of Gato's men and Gato himself and handing them over to the authorities in the Land of the Waves to deal out their punishments, then resting up for the return home.

(Nobody but Naruto was sure why Gato kept sending fearful glances at the blond every now and then). (Naruto made sure to make a mental reminder to tell his siblings what had happened).

The villagers had named their finished bridge "The Seventh Path" to honor the team that had liberated them from Gato's reign of terror. Originally, they had wanted to name it "The Great Naruto Bridge," but after multiple protests from the blond himself, they'd relented. 

Now, it was time to say goodbye, and Naruto took Inari to the side while the rest of his team exchanged farewells with the villagers and Tazuna.

"Inari, I really am proud of what you did," Naruto started, "and I want you to have this." The blond unsealed a scroll from one of the seals on his hip, and handed it to the brunet.

Inari took it carefully, confusion on his face. "Naruto-nii-chan, what does it do?"

Instead of saying anything, Naruto backed up a few paces away, and gestured for Inari to unroll the scroll. "Put a drop of blood on the middle of the seal," he instructed.

Inari stared at Naruto for a second. "Uh, I don't really have anything to draw blood with?" he half-questioned. 

Naruto smiled sheepishly, before walking back over and handing Inari a senbon. "Just prick your finger on it."

When Naruto had backed away again, Inari pricked his finger, and placed a small drop of blood on the seal. For a moment, nothing happened, until Inari jumped back in surprise with a yelp as Naruto poofed into existence, standing in the middle of the seal. 

"Wh—what was that?!"

Naruto laughed. "If there is any kind of emergency, something that is life or death, I want you to use that scroll and either I or a clone of myself will come to help you." He held up a finger. "But  _only_  in life or death emergencies, alright?"

Inari stared at the blond for a second, then promptly launched himself at the laughing shinobi. "Thank you Naruto-nii-chan! Thank you! I promise to only use it in emergencies."

Naruto smiled, then gently pushed the grinning brunet away. "Okay, okay! I really do have to go now, but keep that on you, alright? It will only work with your blood, so no one else can use it, but just to make sure, put it somewhere safe where only you know about, yeah?" Naruto said.

"I promise!"

Naruto nodded, then glanced over to his team. Sakura waved at him, signaling it was time to go. Without further delay, Team 7 began to make their way back to Konoha. 

* * *

Half-way back, Kakashi decided to inform his students about the Chuunin Exam they'd have to take sooner or later. Probably sooner, considering the whispers he'd heard around the Hokage Tower. "So, you three know about the Chuunin Exams, right?" he asked nonchalantly, continuing to walk.

Sasuke was the one to answer him. "Yeah, we know of them." Kakashi saw him smirk at Naruto and Sakura, and saw them smirk back. He sighed.

"Alright. What is it?" he questioned, resignation dripping from his voice.

Sakura snickered. "Well, we've actually already taken the exams. Twice. Once four years ago, and again just two years ago."

Kakashi missed a step and stumbled slightly. He turned around to stare at the three smiling genin with a wide, grey eye. "Care to...run that by me again?"  
  
Naruto laughed. "We've never taken them  _officially_ , but Tail-sensei suggested a while ago that we find out how we compared with actual potential chuunin, so we decided to send one clone of each of us, henged of course, into the exams. We couldn't actually go in person because the exams were held in different villages, but the clones were enough," he explained. 

"They don't give a complete representation of our skill levels because they didn't use any complicated jutsu or techniques, but they passed all the same," Sasuke continued. "The only reason why we were able to falsely compete in the exams is because Tail-sensei acted as a real jounin sensei, and registered us as a genin team from some obscure, never-heard-of village."

"Ultimately, we did this twice, and passed both times," Sakura finished. 

Kakashi was quiet. "When did you guys have  _time_  for all of this?" he muttered.

Naruto patted the jounin's shoulder in faux sympathy. "When the villagers don't really pay any attention to kids, it gives the kids  _lots_  of time to come up with crazy ideas."

"We just happened to have some of the craziest ones," Sakura added with a laugh. 

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "At least you  _admit_  that they're crazy."

Naruto and Sakura giggled.

"Sensei, are you going to report this to the Hokage?" Sasuke asked seriously, slightly ruining the light atmosphere.

Kakashi studied his students carefully. On the one hand, he was  _supposed_  to report this. It was  _illegal_  and if they were ever found out, it would ruin Konoha's reputation and destroy any trust the other villages had for Konoha and her Hokage. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were his genin team, and he was their jounin sensei; he was responsible for them. 

On the  _other_ hand, was he lazy? Yes. Was he proud of his students for being able to deceive multiple Kage at one time? Definitely. Did he secretly wish that he was their sensei at the time?  _Absolutely_. Did he want to report them to the Old Man? No. Was he going to turn them in to the ANBU to be interrogated? Definitely not. Was he going to ruin their chances at becoming official chuunin?  _Absolutely not_.

Was he going to encourage their behavior like a jounin sensei was NOT supposed to do? 

_..._

_HELL YES._

Kakashi cleared his throat, spun on his heel, and continued forward on the path back to Konoha. Not making eye contact with any of the worried— _and batshit crazy_ —genin behind him, he gave his answer.

"No, I won't tell the Hokage, and I'm just gonna pretend that your insane ideas  _stayed_ insane ideas, you psychotic children."

He smiled as a cheer sounded behind him. (And no, he was  _not_  going soft). (Shut up).

Kakashi coughed, then continued to speak, turning his head slightly towards his students, and continued to walk. "So, I realize now you guys already know how the Chuunin Exams work with the different stages and how they're different every time, but you guys are going to start training as soon as we get back." He raised a hand to quell the protests. "I know you guys are probably going to be the most capable team compared to the other competitors who're going to take the test this year, but it always pays to be prepared, doesn't it?"

Naruto hummed. "I guess it would help if I continued to train my ability to create seals without paper or ink...I could probably think of some new ones too." He thought for a moment, then turned to his siblings with a foxy grin. "Hey, part of a shinobi's job is to collect as much information as they can before a mission and find out all they can about the enemy, right?"

He got two nods. 

His grin widened. "Then, wouldn't it be appropriate if I scouted out our competition?"

Another two nods.

"...and what if I Marked them?"

Nobody moved for a moment. 

"Naruto you sly bastard."

* * *

The next few days for Team 7 were spent training and preparing for the Chuunin Exams, not taking anymore D-rank missions. Kakashi considered it a waste of their talent, and instead had them prepare for the exams. However, the only way he could test them to the fullest extent of their abilities (from what he'd seen—he was sure that each of them still had other skills he hadn't witnessed yet) he had to take them to a place where they wouldn't have to worry about putting anyone in harms way, or destroying any important buildings. 

The only place he could think of was an enormous clearing located in the outskirts of Konoha. For a few days, they did some individual training, some teamwork maneuvers, and some sparring. Naruto had also found the time to Mark each of the genin teams he believed would be participating in the Chuunin Exams, giving the genin a chakra symbol that corresponded with the number of their team to make it easier for the blond to remember and identify quickly.

Today, however, Kakashi had suggested they team up against him with the same rules as the bell test. This time, though, he'd wanted them to use _everything_  they had, and not hold back. 

(Well, maybe just a little, he didn't want to actually  _die_ , thank you very much). 

But still, it was a mistake he would regret  _very much_  for the next few days. 

 _'What did I do to deserve such a crazy team?'_  Kakashi thought to himself as he stared with growing despair at the destruction surrounding him on all sides. He turned to glare at his students who where chatting casually with each other about their performance, not even fazed by the amount of damage they had caused. 

Kakashi sighed. Deeply. 

"You three," he called, interrupting his students' conversation and grabbing their attention. "We're going to break early today."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "But, we still have a lot to do? I think?"

The jounin quickly shook his head. "Nope, I'm done with you today, so you're free to roam, or whatever. Besides, I still have to report to the Hokage about the Wave mission, so I was going to have to finish about now anyways. Just don't cause trouble for anybody, alright? I don't want to be lectured by anyone."

The siblings shared a look, then glanced back to their sensei. The man in question sighed. Again.

"Your teamwork is the best I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. At your best, you're able to take out a Rouge ninja; even possibly take  _me_  out, and I'm former ANBU. If I hadn't know you guys when we infiltrated Gato's hideout, I would have mistaken you three for a highly trained assassination team. You guys will do fine. You don't need any more practice. Just rest up for the exams, and do your best not to destroy anyone," he said.

The trio shared another look, before they nodded in satisfaction. 

"Alright then," Kakashi said with more than a little excitement, clapping his hands together. "I'm going to find a nice place to relax, so if you need anything, don't bother me."

Without further ado, the silver-haired man disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

Sakura giggled. "He  _really_  didn't hide his exasperation with us, did he?"

"Nope," her brothers chorused. 

The kunoichi smiled, before stretching her arms above her head, and letting out a noise of contentment. "So," she started, "what should we do now? We have the whole day to ourselves, and we haven't been able to wander the city in a while..." she trailed off suggestively.

Sasuke shrugged. "Sure. We could get something to eat or just people-watch."

"Why don't we go sightseeing? We've been training for most of our lives, so we could actually take the time to figure out what there is to do and see here. I know where everything is because of my chakra pulses, but I don't think I've ever actually taken the time to appreciate this village," Naruto said thoughtfully. 

"No objections here," Sasuke said, raising his hand slightly.

"Then it's settled!" Sakura grinned happily.

But not even five minutes into their little excursion, they encountered a peculiar situation where what looked a box with two holes began to follow them. 

Naruto activated the Speak seal. {That is most definitely Konohamaru. I would bet an entire life's supply of ramen.}

{That's not even a bet worth taking, considering it's obvious that you'd win} Sasuke retorted.

{So what do we do?} Sakura asked, laughter in her voice.

Naruto thought for a moment, then grinned. {Let's turn this into a lesson. I'm willing to add to my bet that Konohamaru has some friends with him, so I'm going to teach them about proper camouflage. Sort of. Let me handle this?}

Sakura and Sasuke answered him by vanishing in the blink of an eye. 

{We'll watch you} Sakura laughed. {This is going to be either extremely entertaining, or extremely embarrassing.}

{She's not wrong, Naruto} Sasuke added with a grin noticeable in his voice.

{You guys shut up. I'm an awesome teacher} Naruto pouted.

{Eh, not really. A student, maybe. But a teacher...?} Sasuke teased.

{Whatever. Just watch me.}

Naruto abruptly stopped walking, and heard the "rock" come to a stop behind him. He started to jog, and heard the "rock" shuffle along behind him. He stopped again. The "rock" skidded across the dirt as it tried to come to a stop without hitting his legs. Naruto dramatically turned around to face the "rock" and pointed his finger at it. 

"There's no such thing as a perfectly square rock with perfect holes!" he declared loudly. "It's too obvious!" His enhanced hearing picked up the sound of laughter. 

{Seriously, Naruto?} Sasuke snickered.

Naruto decided to ignore his brother.

There was a beat of silence, then -

"Just what you'd expect from the man I respect!" came Konohamaru's muffled voice. "You  _are_  my rival, aren't you?!"

Before Naruto could respond, the "rock" exploded into purple and yellow smoke. The blond had to bite his lip to keep from making any sort of noise of amusement. He watched as Konohamaru and his two friends (hah! He was right!) coughed from the amount of excess gunpowder, according to what he heard the Hokage's grandson exclaim through his hacking.

Then it took every bit of Naruto's willpower to not bust his gut at Moegi, Udon, and Konohamaru's self introductions.  

Straightening up and trying to look as regal as possible, Naruto stared down at the "Konohamaru Gang" with his best "Naruto-sensei" look. 

"Lesson number one!" he shouted. "Never construct a disguise that an enemy will be able to see through!"

Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon looked startled, but then realized what was happening. 

"Lesson number two!" Naruto continued. "If an enemy tries to tell you that he has figured out your deception, do not confirm it, but instead deny it as best as you can with a calm and cool head!"

Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon looked like they were hanging onto every word that came out of Naruto's mouth.

"And lesson number three! Do not EVER introduce yourselves to the enemy with such an easily attack-able formation!" Naruto finished. "That's it!"

There was silence. Both from the three children in front of him, and his siblings. 

{Oh. My gosh} Sakura whispered. {That was worse than I thought it would be.}

{Excuse me?! That was perfect! It was to the point, structured, and said in a way that they could understand it! I see nothing wrong with what I just did!} Naruto exclaimed, extremely offended. 

{"Attack-able?" I don't think that's even a word, Naruto} Sasuke laughed.

"Naruto-nii-chan...," Konohamaru said in awe. 

Naruto decided to ignore his siblings again and focused on his three students. "Words of wisdom have been given to you! Use them wisely!" he said proudly. 

"We will!" the Konohamaru Gang chorused. 

Naruto wasn't sure what to do for a moment, before he remembered his promise to play ninja with them. He had the rest of the day off, so he decided to spend some time with the three preschoolers. 

"Hey, remember how I promised I'd play ninja with you guys? Well, I have today free, so I can hang out with you for a while!" he exclaimed. 

"Really?!" Konohamaru gasped. 

Naruto smiled. "Yup! But, since it's kind of unfair having the teams be three-on-one, I'm gonna contact my teammates from my genin team so you guys can meet them, and we'll have even teams, okay?"

Konohamaru hesitated for a moment, before he shared a glance with his own "teammates" and nodded his consent to the blond. 

"Great! Just give me a second." 

Naruto activated the Speak seal. {So, as you guys know, you have been roped into playing a game of ninja. And you can't get out of it unless you want to disappoint these impressionable children.}

Sakura groaned. {Seriously? We all know those kids are anything but innocent. They're  _gremlins_ I tell you, sticky-handed  _gremlins_.}

{Dobe, I really don't think it's a good idea if all three of us do it. Remember, we still want to keep our images of town idiot, top class fan-girl, and brooding emo until the Chuunin Exams} Sasuke interjected. 

Naruto sighed. {True. Sakura, do you want to put our acting skills to the test?}

The pink haired girl grumbled for a minute, before finally relenting. { _Fine_. Whatever. Let's just get this over with.}

Naruto turned back to his little companions who were staring at him in confusion. 

"I thought you were going to contact your teammates, Nii-chan?" Konohamaru asked.

Naruto grinned. "I did." He pointed to where Sakura was now walking towards their group with a depressed air about her. 

"Really? A ninja playing ninja? What kind of idiot are you?" she deadpanned at Naruto. 

The blond laughed loudly, if not a bit nervously. 

Konohamaru studied the way Sakura was glaring at Naruto. A light bulb went off in his head.

"Oi, Nii-chan, is she your...?" he asked Naruto not-so-quietly, making a fist and lifting up only his pinky finger. 

Naruto inwardly cringed. Majorly. But outwardly, he forced himself to blush, and give a response befitting of the persona he was playing. "Ah shucks, you guys are really sharp for kids your age!"

He did not miss the way Sakura's glare intensified. 

{Just punch me already and get it over with} Naruto sighed. {But please, whatever you do, don't infuse it with chakra.}

{With pleasure, and no promises.}

Sakura reared back a fist, and launched it into Naruto's face, yelling out a war cry as she did so. 

"What are you doing?!" Konohamaru cried as he and the rest of his gang rushing to where Naruto had crashed into a wooden barrier. 

{Oh that felt good} Sakura said with satisfaction.

{I'm glad it did for  _someone_ } Naruto whined. 

Sasuke snorted. {You know you deserved it.}

{Shut up.}

Sakura nodded her head, then proceeded to march away from the scene, believing her duty to be done. But then the little  _brat_ had to open his mouth. 

"Darn that broad foreheaded ugly wench! Is she a real girl?!" he complained to Naruto. 

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks. 

{Shit} Sasuke swore.

{Shit} Naruto sighed.

Slowly turning around, Sakura smiled at Naruto and the Konohamaru Gang, but the smile on her face, Naruto knew, was one that meant pain.  _Serious_  pain. 

 _'Double shit,'_  Naruto thought with growing panic. 

Nobody moved for a moment, then Sakura  _launched_ herself at the group of four, who all had the same train of thought, turning and running as fast as they could from the pissed off kunoichi. 

Until Konohamaru ran straight into the leg of a tall boy who wore an all black jumpsuit with a hood that had cat-ear shaped tips and a hitai-ate embedded into it. The suit had a circle that was split vertically down the middle, separating the yellow half from the red half. Purple kabuki paint adorned his face.

Naruto immediately noticed the strange contraption wrapped in bandages strapped to the stranger's back. He also noted the blonde female standing a bit off to the side. Her hair was fashioned into four ponytails, and she wore a lavender kimono-styled outfit that had a fishnet design across her shoulders and collar bones. A red belt was wrapped around her waist, while her hitai-ate sat around her neck. A large fan rested across on her back.  

Without wasting another second, he sent out a wave of chakra, locating another presence nearby that he didn't recognize. But he  _did_  recognize the type of chakra this third person was giving off. 

[Kurama] Naruto said seriously.

[Yeah, I feel it too] the fox growled. [If it gets ugly, I'll interfere. Shukaku is like a child; he likes to cause destruction, so be cautious when dealing with his holder.]

[Right.] Naruto switched gears.

{Sakura, Sasuke. These two are from the Village Hidden in the Sand, Sunagakure. I recognize the symbol on their hitai-ate. Another one of them is hiding nearby to my right. Sasuke, find him, but don't let him sense you. Just keep track of him. Sakura, maintain your cover, but be ready to move at a moment's notice. We could easily take these guys, but I'm assuming they're here for the exams, and we don't want to cause an international incident} Naruto said quickly, filling in his siblings on the situation. 

To their credit, Sasuke and Sakura immediately complied with his directions, not even stopping to question him. Naruto always appreciated the amount of trust held between them. 

{One more thing. Sasuke, the guy I'm having you keep an eye on is a jinchuuriki like me, but he's the holder of the Ichibi, otherwise known as Shukaku} Naruto explained. {He might be volatile, as we don't know if he's in contact with his bijuu like I am, and we don't know how much control he has over his powers. }

{Right. I'll be careful} Sasuke acknowledged. 

"That hurt," the stranger with the purple face paint drawled. 

* * *

Meanwhile, Kakashi was finally handing in his report about the Wave mission. Ironically, Iruka was the one to accept it from the silver-haired jounin. 

"I have finally and formally received the report," Iruka declared happily, glancing over the report. He looked up at the jounin-sensei. "Is Naruto getting along with his teammates?"

Now, Iruka knew that Naruto and his team were not exactly normal, but he didn't actually know to what extent. He  _did_  know Naruto was more skilled than he was letting on, but he wasn't sure how much Naruto had revealed to Kakashi. Assuming the lazy ninja didn't know too much about Naruto's true abilities, he decided to maintain Naruto's cover, even though he didn't really understand it too much.

Kakashi, on the other had, didn't believe  _Iruka_  knew about Naruto's true abilities, nor the relationship between the skilled blond and his teammates. So, he also decided to maintain his team's cover. 

"Well, he's doing okay," he answered vaguely. 

Iruka smiled a bit, a bit of a blush dusting his cheeks. "I've been busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to seem him since he returned," he said sheepishly. "I'm a little concerned."

 _'Although, probably not in the way you're most likely thinking,'_  the brown haired man thought to himself. 

 _'There really isn't any reason to be concerned about Naruto's ability to work with his team. If anything, you should probably be worried about the mischief they're bound to cause,'_  Kakashi thought dryly. He tsked. 

"As you know, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi started, smiling a bit awkwardly underneath his mask, "Uchiha Sasuke is also in Team seven, and Naruto sees him as a, ah, rival of sorts, which puts a bit of strain on the team dynamic. But, the result is that his abilities are developing significantly."

 _'As if he needs to develop more absurd abilities,'_  the jounin sensei scoffed mentally before continuing to "reassure" the Academy teacher. 

"Almost to the point that he might reach yours, the one he respects!"

Now Iruka was confused. Surely Kakashi knew at a least a  _little_  bit about Naruto's true abilities...? Well, that was assuming the blond was comfortable enough around Kakashi to tell his jounin sensei about his true skill level, so maybe Kakashi knew a little bit but wasn't actually in-the-know enough to realize that Naruto had already surpassed much of Iruka's own abilities?

Well, there was nothing Iruka could ask without accidentally exposing Naruto's best kept secret, so he just smiled at the jounin in front of him.

Kakashi was smiling back. 

It was truly awkward. 

* * *

Naruto watched, with anger boiling in his blood, as the purple-painted ninja lifted Konohamaru by his scarf, slightly choking the small boy. 

"That hurt, little punk," the stranger said lowly, pulling Konohamaru closer to him. 

Konohamaru gripped the hand holding him in the air, scrunching his face up in pain.

The blonde kunoichi turned her head away from the slightly disturbing scene. "Stop that," she said, a resigned sigh woven in with her words. "You'll get yelled at later."

Staying true to Naruto's earlier orders, Sakura apologized to the two Sunagakure ninja with her hands clasped together in front of her chest, faking a scared look. With her outfit being the one she wore during the Wave mission, her demeanor was slightly strange, considering her midriff and legs were exposed, giving off a sort of self-confidence vibe. Unfortunately, all of Team 7 hadn't thought to change back into their "mask outfits," so Naruto was wearing his orange tank-top, blue jacket hoodie, and his black shinobi shorts. 

They looked competent, but their attitudes were completely contradicting their outfits. 

"Oi! Let go of him!" Naruto yelled, shaking a fist at the ninja holding Konohamaru hostage. He was ignored. 

The male ninja scoffed. "Let's play with them before the strict one comes around," he drawled. 

 _'He must be referring to the third person hiding nearby,'_  Naruto thought. 

"Let...go!" Konohamaru choked out, kicking feebly against his captor's chest. 

"You're a lively little punk," the stranger said with a smirk.  

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. 

_'Damn the mask! Konohamaru's safety is more important!'_

Faster than any eye could track, Naruto whipped out a kunai and threw it at the hand clutching Konohamaru's blue scarf. 

The weapon met its mark, and pierced through the palm and stuck out the back of the offending ninja's hand. 

The effect was immediate. 

With a loud howl, the black-clothed ninja dropped Konohamaru, who Naruto leapt forward to catch, swiftly jumping back towards his sister as soon as he had the small boy in his arms. 

"What the fuck?!" Konohamaru's ex-captor shouted, pain and shock lacing his words. He turned to glare at Naruto, who glared right back.

Naruto watched with narrowed eyes as the other ninja snarled, yanked the knife out of his hand, and then pulled the strange looking contraption from his back. "You'll pay for that, brat!"

Before anybody could move, a low voice interrupted the escalating confrontation. 

"Kankuro, stop that."

Naruto's eyes flickered upwards to the tree where he knew Sasuke was keeping an eye on the Ichibi's jinchuuriki. He saw his brother first, then noticed the boy standing upside down from one of the tree branches. Red hair, green eyes lined with kohl, wearing a black shirt on top of a fishnet t-shirt paired with black pants tied off at the ankles with shinobi bandages, a white scarf wrapped diagonally across his body; Naruto took in everything about the stranger within a matter of seconds. The object that drew his eyes was the large gourd attached to a harness strapped in the opposite diagonal from the scarf across the boy's body. 

 _'So this is Shukaku's holder. He has a lot of power within him, but not as much as me, or even my siblings at this point,'_  Naruto mused. 

"You're an embarrassment to our village," the red-head continued. 

Naruto heard a few shocked gasps, then focused on the newly named ninja. 

"G-Gaara..." Kankuro said nervously. 

{Naruto} Sasuke called.

{Yeah?}

{He hasn't noticed me yet. What do you want me to do?} 

{Stay up there as our back up if things go south. Hopefully, these guys will leave us alone until the exams start, so we can end this confrontation without anymore violence} Naruto answered.

{Cool, but, seriously, what the hell was that?!} Sakura interrupted. {What possessed you to impale that guy's hand?! What happened to not wanting to cause an "international incident"?!}

{Well, one, he was  _really_ starting to piss me off. And two, the Old Man wouldn't appreciate someone threatening and harming his grandson, so all is well and fine} Naruto said nonchalantly. 

Sakura sighed. {Seriously, next time warn a girl before you decide to go all trigger happy on her, okay?}

{Yes, mother.}

Naruto's attention was pulled away from his siblings as he listened to Gaara scold Kankuro for his actions, and as Kankuro attempted to defend himself. 

"Shut up!" Gaara finally demanded, raising his voice ever so slightly. 

Kankuro flinched. 

Gaara narrowed his cold eyes into a glare. "I'll kill you."

Naruto's own eyes widened. 

{He sounded completely serious} he told his siblings. 

{No kidding} Sasuke muttered. 

{Geez, it's like this guy feels totally unbothered by the fact that he just threatened to kill his teammate} Sakura mumbled.

"U-Understood," Kankuro stuttered in fear, raising his hands in a placating manner. "I was wrong. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."

Gaara turned his head to stare down at Naruto. "Sorry about that," he apologized sincerely but dispassionately. The two jinchuuriki had a staring match, each analyzing the other, before Gaara turned into ribbons of sand and gracefully fell from the tree, reforming on the ground in front of the other two Sunagakure shinobi. 

"Let's go," he said. 

The red-head started to take a step forward, but then froze. 

"Gaara?" the blonde kunoichi asked. 

The boy brought his hands to his head, gripping it tightly. A low, pained moan escaped from him.

[Kit! It's Shukaku!] Kurama suddenly shouted at Naruto.

[What?!]

[Listen to me, Shukaku will only calm down if he's commanded by someone he knows is unquestionably stronger than him. I'm the only one of the bijuu he somewhat respects, so you're going to have to talk him down using a bit of my aura] Kurama said quickly.

[Okay. Need make sure he doesn't go berserk, got it] Naruto agreed. [Let me relay what's going to happen to the other two.]

[Make it fast.]

Naruto activated the Speak seal. {Gaara is getting Shukaku's will forced on him by Shukaku himself. I'm going to try and talk him down, but it's going to require me to use a bit of Kurama's presence. Get Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon out of here. Quickly!}

{Copy} his siblings chorused. 

In the blink of an eye, Sasuke dropped down and scooped Moegi into his arms, while Sakura grabbed Konohamaru and Udon under each of her arms. The two siblings jumped away towards the Hokage tower, the small kids shouting their protests, especially Konohamaru. Sakura and Sasuke ignored them, continuing their path to the tower. If things didn't go well between Naruto and Gaara, they knew the Hokage would have to intervene.

Naruto stepped forward and let some of Kurama's power radiate from him, pulling back his shoulders and standing tall. Gaara's teammates immediately backed away from him and the red-head who was now breathing hard but still facing away from the blond.

 **"Ichibi,"** Naruto called out in a hard voice.

He ignored the way Kankuro and the other teammate (who Naruto  _still_  didn't know the name of) glanced at him with wide eyes. 

Gaara went rigid, and whipped around to face Naruto, his own eyes--turned a darker blue with Shukaku's power--blown open in shock. 

 **"Ichibi,"** Naruto repeated.  **"Stand down. You have no place here. This land is under my protection, and you shall not encroach upon my declared territory. You will not like what will happen if you do."**

There was a tense silence, before the color of Gaara's eyes went back to their normal ice-blue. 

Naruto sighed, and let the tension fade from his shoulders. 

{Crisis averted} he alerted his siblings.

{Oh thank god} Sakura sighed. 

{Well, I mean, we could have taken him if he  _had_  gone crazy} Sasuke muttered. 

Naruto laughed slightly. {Sasuke, just admit that you're upset because you didn't get to fight him.}

{You  _wish_ } Sasuke hissed. 

{Boys} Sakura grumbled. 

Naruto turned back towards the three Sunagakure ninja who were staring at him warily. He sighed again. 

Turning toward Gaara, he spoke calmly and quietly, but with confidence and self-assurance. "I know what you hold inside of you. I am the same, but I have come to terms with my tenant and made peace with him. He lends me his power when I need it, and in turn, he is allowed limited freedom, considering I cannot undo the seal that traps him within my body."

When he got two terrified looks and one glare, Naruto shook his head. "I'm being completely serious. If you ever want to become free of Shuka--of the Ichibi's direct influence, make peace with his will, and you will gain control of his power."

Gaara held Naruto's gaze for a moment before he spoke. "What's your name?"

Naruto was taken off guard for a moment, before he smiled. 

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. And your name?"

Gaara frowned. "You already know who I am."

Naruto nodded patiently. "Yes, but I want to hear it from you."

Gaara's frown deepened. "I am Gaara of the Dessert." He turned away from Naruto before the blond could reply. 

As the sand teammates walked away, Naruto contacted his own teammates. 

{Where are you guys right now?}

{We're approaching the Hokage tower} Sakura answered.

{We're going to drop Konohamaru and his friends off, and then we'll meet up with you} Sasuke added. 

{Alright. Meet me at Training Ground three in ten minutes. I should be done with the little errand I have to make by then} Naruto replied. {Don't worry. I'll let you know what happened when I get there} he added quickly to hold off the questions and demands he knew were going to fly.

He cut off the connection with the Speak seal before disappearing in a blur. 

He reappeared on a tree branch above the three ninja he'd detected spying on him and his confrontation with Gaara. Their headbands had a musical note on them; a symbol he'd never seen before in books or otherwise. 

 _'Their chakra signatures feel hostile and unnatural, like they were tampered with,'_  Naruto thought.  _'I can definitely tell they're bad news.'_

Naruto cleared his throat.

The three suspicious ninja whipped their heads up in his direction, their faces belaying their shock. 

The blond smiled and waved cheerfully. "Hello! I hope you know I don't appreciate it when people spy on me," he said, a hint of an edge in his voice. 

Naruto let his face become as cold as stone and his voice like ice. "I assume you're here for the Chuunin Exams, but I really don't think you guys have the best intentions, do you?"

He saw the way the ninja with the bandages wrapped around his face narrow his visible eye and tense, preparing to attack. 

"Ah ah ah, I don't think you want to attack me right now, considering that you're in  _my_ village, and here under the name of peace for the exams. Do you really think my Hokage will stand for one of his genin being attacked while under his protection?" Naruto said, his cheerful tone back in full swing. 

"Dosu, enough! We can't cause a scene, or  _he'll_  get mad," Naruto heard the female hiss to the bandage-wrapped ninja. 

_'He...?'_

"Tsk, fine," Dosu growled back to her. He glared up at Naruto. "You're dead, brat. You'd better pray to any god you know because you'll need their luck when we meet again."

Naruto smiled, but it was more of a baring of teeth than anything. "We'll see."

Without another word, the three foreign ninja disappeared. 

Naruto sighed heavily. 

[Well, at least you were able to prevent Shukaku from going wild] Kurama said optimistically.

[Yeah. But I wonder who those three ninja were. Their chakra signatures were strange, and I know I did my own reconnaissance on the other genin teams in Konoha, but the way they were watching us made me feel like a bug being scrutinized by a scientist] Naruto said with a shiver. 

[They didn't feel powerful enough to defeat you, though] Kurama mused. 

[No, they didn't, but that doesn't mean they're not here to cause some trouble for others] Naruto warned. 

[Just keep an eye on them, and if you see anything amiss, take them down] Kurama said nonchalantly. [Besides, during the second part of the Chuunin Exam, as you already know, you're allowed to kill people if the situation calls for it] the fox added.

Naruto let out a slow breath through his nose. [Yeah, but I really hope it doesn't come to that.] Because no matter what kind of experience Naruto had with taking the life of another person, it wasn't like he did it for fun, or found any joy in doing it. Killing was part of being a ninja, he understood that, but killing unnecessarily did nothing but hurt more people who didn't deserve it. 

Once, Naruto had found an interesting phrase in a book. ' _If you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world stays the same,'_  it'd said. Naruto had found himself not necessarily agreeing with the phrase, considering that even his siblings, the kindest people he knew, had killed before. But that fact didn't make  _them_  'killers,' it'd just made them more of an experienced shinobi. 

Naruto believed killing for the right reasons was what made the difference between a killer and a shinobi; but then that raised the question of who decided what the right reasons for killing were. The Hokage? His sensei? Himself? Naruto wasn't naive enough to believe that  _anyone_  had the right to decide what the right reasons for killing were, but he knew, in both his mind and heart, that he would take down anyone or anything that tried to harm those he loved. That kind of killing, he thought, was the only kind of acceptable killing there was. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Naruto spared a glance in the direction the foreign ninja had left, then flash-stepped to Training Ground 3.

He found his siblings already there with, surprisingly, Kakashi.

"Yo," the jounin greeted, waving a lazy hand through the air. 

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, sending a questioning look towards his siblings. 

"Kakashi-sensei was just saying that he formally recommended us for the Chuunin Exam," Sakura answered. 

Naruto's face lit up. "So?" he turned to his sensei with an excited look on his face, mirrored by his sister while his brother had a satisfied smirk on his lips. "When's it going to be?"

Kakashi gave them an eye smile. "In five days, on the first day of July."

"YES!" Naruto cheered. "We still have a bit of time to train and scout out more information before the start of the exam, so we're going to use that time to the fullest!" 

Kakashi just shook his head in amusement. "Well then, here are your applications, so make sure to sign them and come to room three-hundred one of the Academy at three p.m. on the day of the exam," he explained, handing each of his students a slip of paper.

"Yes sir!" they chorused. 

Naruto stared down at his piece of paper, then looked up to find both of his siblings smiling at him. He smiled back.

This was their first step into becoming official ninja of Konoha. 

Their first step towards breaking the deception of dai-nana-han. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO. What did you think? Good? Bad? I know there was someone who told me I was good at connecting long chapters, but I'm not sure I did quite such a good job with this one. I wanted to make the Gato raid longer, but it didn't fit with what I'd envisioned months ago for what I wanted to do with this chapter. 
> 
> Also, the part where the Hokage talks with the jounin? Yeah, I kind of skipped that part, because it interrupted the flow of the chapter, and one of the episodes I included in this chapter ends with his speech, and I didn't want to end this chapter with only 7,800 words. I tried to keep this chapter to 10,000 words, since there were two conflicting opinions in the comments about how long chapters should be, so I figured 10,000 words was a good medium. If there are any more concerns about chapter length, feel free to comment your thoughts.
> 
> I only added the part with Kakashi and Iruka awkwardly in the middle because I wanted to show you guys the different thoughts and opinions of Team 7 between them. Also, I thought it was kind of funny that they didn't know that the other knew a little bit about Naruto's secret, but not everything. 
> 
> AND DON'T WORRY! THE FLUFF AND ANGST WITH IRUKA AND NARUTO WILL HAPPEN! I JUST COULDN'T FIND A GOOD PLACE TO PUT IT IN!
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter anyways!
> 
> If you guys caught any mistakes or gave me a suggestion in your past comment(s) and I didn't address it in this chapter (since I don't have a beta and I really don't have the energy to review it myself because of COLLEGE APPS OH MY GOSH PLEASE SAVE ME) feel free to comment politely in the comments section. I respect constructive criticism, but do not appreciate flames. So far, I haven't gotten any, and that's a real blessing, but I still feel the need to ask for manners. This world would be a better place if people were polite and kind to one another.
> 
> (I'm 17 and I know that's not the way the world works, but hey, a girl can dream).
> 
> See you guys next time! (And hopefully not 7 months later).

**Author's Note:**

> SO! That was a monster of a first chapter! If you guys find any mistakes, or have any friendly suggestions, let me know! I've also decided to use both Japanese and English names for jutsus and stuff. If it gets confusing, just let me know and I'll put translations in my future Notes. The next chapter probably won't be as long as this one, but it will involve the Bell Test, the entire Land of the Waves arc, and maybe the beginning of the Chuunin Exams arc. 
> 
> See you next time!


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